LINCOLN  ROOM 


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AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY    of 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


Statue  of  Lincoln  by  Daniel  Chester  French 


*An  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  of 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Consisting  of  the 

Personal  Portions  of  his  Letters 

Speeches  and  Conversations 

Compiled  and  Annotated  by 

Nathaniel  Wright  Stephenson 

Illustrated 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1926 
By  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PRINTED    AND    BOUND 

BY    BRAUNWORTH    &     CO.,    INC 

BROOKLYN,   NEW  YORK 


TO 
ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART 

Dear  Professor  Hart: 

Though  so  many  years  are  gone,  alas!  since  it  was  my  regu- 
lar habit  to  submit  to  you  all  my  "findings,"  the  impulse  to  do 
so  has  that  imperishable  foundation  which  belongs  to  all  de- 
lightful things  established  in  the  Golden  Age.  What  a  number 
of  us,  who,  if  we  subtracted  from  our  "technique" — as  the 
pompous  ones  like  to  say — all  that  we  owe  to  you,  would  have 
at  best  such  a  doubtful  remainder! 

I  hope  you  will  think  well  of  this  attempt  to  show  Lincoln  s 
development  through  a  mosaic  of  his  literary  remains.  A  word 
as  to  how  and  why.  It  would  be  a  fault  in  candor,  as  well  as  a 
lack  of  graciousness,  not  to  acknowledge,  first  of  all,  the 
model — that  skilful  volume  upon  Napoleon,  "The  Corsican," 
compiled  by  the  late  R.  M.  Johnson.  Will  you  question  the 
one  serious  departure  from  Johnson  s  method,  the  admission — 
sparingly,  please  observe — among  the  written  fragments  of  a 
few  anecdotes?  How  else  could  Lincoln's  humor  be  intro- 
duced? How  else  get  round  that  singular  fact,  the  disappear- 
ance of  his  humor  the  moment  almost  he  took  pen  in  hand? 
Then,  too,  do  not  these  personal  bits  preserve  his  quaint  home- 
liness, persistent  in  the  man  to  the  end  though  it  faded 
eventually  from  his  papers  as  their  stateliness  came  in?  Of 
course,  one  is  sadly  conscious  of  the  obviously  apochryphal 
character  of  so  many  Lincoln  anecdotes.  To  be  a  peg  for  fools 
to  hang  stories  upon,  especially  broad  stories,  is  already  part  of 
his  ironic  fate. 


You  will  find  that  no  substantial  liberties  have  been  taken 
with  the  papers.  A  few  imperative  ones  only — such  as  altered 
punctuation  when  the  biographical  bits  of  a  document  have 
been  spliced  together;  the  dropping  of  allusions  to  passages  not 
retained;  once  in  a  while,  placing  a  passage  not  at  the  date  when 
it  was  written,  but  at  the  date  to  zuhich  it  refers;  et  cetera.  And 
is  not  the  appended  matter  quite  necessary  to  establish  con- 
necting links? 

But  why  discuss  what  you  will  perceive  at  a  glance  and 
judge  with  finality? 

Because  of  your  unfailing  interest  in  the  promising  younger 
men  you  may  care  to  know  that  some  of  the  best  bits  that  fol- 
low, including  the  letter  to  Chase  of  June  20,  1859,  were  dis- 
covered by  my  former  student,  Mr.  A.  Howard  Meneely,  now 
of  New  York  University. 

Always  gratefully, 

Nathaniel  Wright  Stephenson. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 
Statue  of  Lincoln  by  Daniel  Chester  French     .     Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

Cartoon  :   The  Coming  Man's  Presidential  Career,  a  la 

Blondin 30 

View  on   Pennsylvania  Avenue,   Washington,   Monday, 

March  4,  1861 80 

Cartoon:   Over  the  Way 132 

Cartoon:    John  Bull  Passant  sur  Ic  Ventre  de  I'Oncle 
Tom,  son  Ancicn  Protege,  pour  Saisir  tine  Balle  de 

Coton 186 

Cartoon  :  Abe  Lincoln's  Last  Card ;  or  Rouge-et-noir  .  238 
Cartoon:  One  Head  Better  Than  Two  ....  290 
Cartoon:  Columbia  Upbraids  Lincoln  ....  342 
Cartoon  :  The  True  Issue,  or  "That's  What's  the  Matter"  394 
Cartoon:    Britannia  Sympathizes  with  Columbia  .        .   446 


Note.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  acknowl- 
edge the  helpful  suggestions  in  the 
selection  of  Lincoln  cartoons  of  Mr. 
Oliver  McKee,  assistant  editor  of  The 
Pageant  of  America,  whose  knowledge 
of  the  subject  is  extremely  wide  and  sure. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Grateful  acknowledgment  by  the  editor  is  due  to  the  fol- 
lowing publishers,  authors  and  proprietors  of  copyrights, 
whose  permission  to  include  selections  from  the  indicated 
volumes  was  generously  granted : 

The  Century  Company,  New  York,  for  excerpts  from 
The  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  edited  by  John  G. 
Nicolay  and  John  Hay, 

Mr.  George  Haven  Putnam,  New  York,  for  excerpts  from 
The  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  edited  by  Mr.  Put- 
nam and  Doctor  Arthur  Brooks  Lapsley. 

The  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  for  excerpts 
from  The  Uncollected  Letters  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  brought 
together  by  Gilbert  A.  Tracy ;  from  The  Real  Lincoln,  by  Jesse 
W.  Weik,  and  from  The  Diary  of  Gideon  Welles. 

The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  Lincoln  History 
Society  of  New  York,  and  Miss  Ida  M.  Tarbell  the  author, 
for  excerpts  from  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  for  excerpts 
from  Intimate  Character  Sketches  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by 
Henry  B.  Rankin;  and  The  True  Abraham  Lincoln,  by 
William  Eleroy  Curtis. 

Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Company,  New  York,  for  excerpts 
from  A  Biography  of  William  Cullen  Bryant,  by  Parke  God- 
win; and  Abraham  Lincoln:  The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life, 
by  William  H.  Herndon  and  Jesse  W.  Weik. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Mr.  Alexander  W.  Hannah,  Chicago,  for  permission  to 
include  a  letter  from  Lincoln  to  his  wife;  first  printed  in 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Prairie  Years,  by  Carl  Sandburg;  copy- 
right by  Harcourt,  Brace  &  Company. 

Doctor  William  E.  Barton,  Foxboro,  Massachusetts,  for 
excerpts  from  his  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Honorable  William  Barnes,  Albany,  New  York,  for  ex- 
cerpts from  Memoir  of  Thurlow  Weed. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Seward,  Auburn,  New  York,  for  excerpts  from 
Seward  at  Washington. 

N.  W.  S. 


AN   AUTOBIOGRAPHY   OF 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

1809-1836 

February  I 2th,  1809.  I  was  born  February  12,  1809,  near 
where  Hogginsville  (Hodgenville)  now  is,  then  in  Hardin 
County,  Kentucky,  at  a  point  within  the  now  county  of  La 
Rue,  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  from  where  Hodgen's  Mill 
now  is.  I  know  no  means  of  identifying  the  precise  locality. 
It  was  on  Nolin's  Creek. 

My  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia,  of  undistinguished 
families — second  families,  perhaps  I  should  say.  My  mother, 
who  died  in  my  tenth  year,  was  of  a  family  of  the  name  of 
Hanks,  some  of  whom  now  reside  in  Adams,  and  others  in 
Macon  County,  Illinois.  My  paternal  grandfather,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  emigrated  from  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  to 
Kentucky  about  1781  or  1782,  where  a  year  or  two  later  he 
was  killed  by  the  Indians,  not  in  battle,  but  by  stealth,  when 
he  was  laboring  to  open  a  farm  in  the  forest.  His  ancestors, 
who  were  Quakers,  went  to  Virginia  from  Berks  County, 
Pennsylvania.  An  effort  to  identify  them  with  the  New  Eng- 
land family  of  the  same  name  ended  in  nothing  more  definite 
than  a  similarity  of  Christian  names  in  both  families,  such  as 
Enoch,  Levi,  Mordecai,  Solomon,  Abraham,  and  the  like.* 

My  father,  at  the  death  of  his  father,  was  but  six  years  of 
age,  and  he  grew  up  literally  without  education.  By  the  early 
death  of  his  father,  and  the  very  narrow  circumstances  of  his 


*Subsequent  genealogical  labors  have  established  the  connection  which 
Lincoln  thought  did  not  exist. 

I 


2  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1813-17 

mother,  even  in  childhood  he  was  a  wandering  laboring-boy, 
and  never  did  more  in  the  way  of  writing  than  bunglingly  to 
write  his  own  name. 

1813.     Thomas  Lincoln  takes  a  farm  on  Knob  Creek. 

181 3.  The  place  on  Knob  Creek  I  remember  very  well. 
My  earliest  recollection  is  of  the  Knob  Creek  place. 

18 14.  Before  leaving  Kentucky,  I  and  my  sister  were  sent, 
for  short  periods,  to  A  B  C  schools,  the  first  kept  by  Zachariah 
Reney,  the  second  by  Caleb  Hazel. 

1815.  With  weapons  no  more  formidable  than  hickory 
clubs  Austin  Gallaher  and  I  had  been  playing  in  the  woods  and 
hunting  rabbits.  After  several  hours  of  vigorous  exercise  we 
had  stopped  to  rest.  After  a  while  I  threw  down  my  cap, 
climbed  a  tree,  and  was  resting  comfortably  in  the  forks  of 
two  limbs.  Below  me  stretched  out  full  length  on  the  grass 
was  Austin  apparently  asleep.  Beside  him  lay  his  cap,  the 
inside  facing  upward.  In  the  pocket  of  my  little  jacket  reposed 
a  paw-paw  which  I  had  shortly  before  found.  The  thought 
suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  great  fun  to  drop  it 
into  Austin's  upturned  cap.  It  was  so  ripe  and  soft  I  could 
scarcely  withdraw  it  whole  from  my  pocket.  Taking  careful 
aim  I  let  it  fall.  I  had  calculated  just  right;  for  it  struck  the 
cap  center  and  I  could  see  portions  of  soft  yellow  paw-paw 
spattering  in  every  direction.  I  paused  to  observe  the  result, 
convinced  that  Austin  would  resent  the  indignity ;  but,  strange 
to  relate,  the  proceeding  failed  to  arouse  him.  Presently  I  slid 
down  the  tree,  but  judge  of  my  surprise  on  reaching  the 
ground  when  I  learned  that,  instead  of  sleeping,  Austin  had 
really  been  awake;  and  that  while  I  was  climbing  the  tree  he 
had  very  adroitly  changed  caps,  substituting  my  own  for  his, 
so  that,  instead  of  tormenting  him  as  I  was  intending,  I  had 
simply  besmeared  my  own  headgear. 


age  4-8]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  3 

1816.  Our  farm  was  composed  of  three  fields  which  lay 
in  the  valley  surrounded  by  high  hills  and  deep  gorges.  Some- 
times when  there  came  a  big  rain  in  the  hills  the  water  would 
come  down  the  gorges  and  spread  over  the  farm.  The  last 
thing  I  remember  of  doing  there  was  one  Saturday  afternoon; 
the  other  boys  planted  the  corn  in  what  we  called  the  "big 
field" — it  contained  seven  acres — and  I  dropped  the  pumpkin 
seed.  I  dropped  two  seeds  every  other  hill  and  every  other 
row.  The  next  Sunday  morning  there  came  a  big  rain  in  the 
hills ;  it  did  not  rain  a  drop  in  the  valley,  but  the  water,  coming 
down  through  the  gorges,  washed  ground,  corn,  pumpkin  seeds 
and  all  clear  off  the  field. 

I  can  remember  our  life  in  Kentucky;  the  cabin,  the  stinted 
living,  the  sale  of  our  possessions,  and  the  journey  with  my 
father  and  mother  to  Southern  Indiana.  We  removed  to  what 
is  now  Spencer  County,  Indiana,  in  the  autumn  of  18 16,  I  then 
being  in  my  eighth  year.  This  removal  was  partly  on  account 
of  slavery,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the  difficulty  in  land  titles 
in  Kentucky. 

Thomas  Lincoln  and  his  family  settle  on  uncleared  land, 
near  Pigeon  Creek,  not  far  from  Rockport,  Indiana. 

Autumn,  1816.  We  settled  in  an  unbroken  forest,  and  the 
clearing  away  of  surplus  wood  was  the  great  task  ahead.  I, 
though  very  young,  was  large  of  my  age,  and  had  an  ax  put 
into  my  hands  at  once;  and  from  that  till  within  my  twenty- 
third  year  I  was  almost  constantly  handling  that  most  useful 
instrument — less,  of  course,  in  plowing  and  harvest  seasons. 

February,  1817.  Our  new  home  was  a  wild  region  with 
many  bears  and  other  wild  animals  still  in  the  woods.  There 
I  took  an  early  start  as  a  hunter,  which  was  never  much  im- 
proved afterward.  A  few  days  before  the  completion  of  my 
eighth  year,  in  the  absence  of  my  father,  a  flock  of  wild  tur- 


4  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1818-21 

keys  approached  the  new  log  cabin,  and  I  with  a  rifle-gun, 
standing  inside,  shot  through  a  crack  and  killed  one  of  them. 
I  have  never  since  pulled  a  trigger  on  any  larger  game. 

It  was  pretty  pinching  times  at  first  in  Indiana,  getting  the 
cabin  built,  and  clearing  for  the  crops,  but  presently  we  got 
reasonably  comfortable. 

October  5th,  1818.     My  mother  died. 

1819.  I  was  kicked  by  a  horse  and  apparently  dead  for  a 
time. 

December  2nd.  My  father  married  Mrs.  Sally  Johnston,  at 
Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  a  widow  with  three  children  by  her 
first  marriage.    She  proved  a  good  and  kind  mother  to  me. 

1820.  There  were  some  schools,  so  called,  but  no  qualifi- 
cation was  ever  required  of  a  teacher  beyond  "readin',  writin', 
and  cipherinV'  to  the  rule  of  three.  If  a  straggler  supposed  to 
understand  Latin  happened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood,  he 
was  looked  upon  as  a  wizard.  There  was  absolutely  nothing 
to  excite  ambition  for  education.  ...  I  went  to  A  B  C 
schools  by  littles,  kept  successively  by  Andrew  Crawford, 
Sweeney,  and  Azel  W.  Dorsey.  I  do  not  remember  any  other. 
I  now  think  that  the  aggregate  of  all  my  schooling  did  not 
amount  to  one  year. 

(In  a  copy  book) 

Abraham  Lincoln,  his  hand  and  pen, 
He  will  be  good,  but  God  knows  when. 

18 2 1  (?).  Among  my  earliest  recollections  I  remember 
how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when  anybody 
talked  to  me  in  a  way  that  I  could  not  understand.  I  can  re- 
member going  to  my  little  bedroom,  after  hearing  the  neighbors 
talk  of  an  evening  with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part 
of  the  night  trying  to  make  out  what  was  the  exact  meaning  of 
some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings. 

I  could  not  sleep,  although  I  tried  to,  when  I  got  on  such  a 


age  9-12]        AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  5 

hunt  for  an  idea,  until  I  had  caught  it ;  and  when  I  thought  I 
had  got  it  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and 
over  again,  until  I  had  put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I 
thought,  for  any  boy  I  knew  to  comprehend. 

One  day  a  wagon  with  a  lady  and  two  girls  and  a  man 
broke  down  near  us,  and  while  they  were  fixing  up,  they 
cooked  in  our  kitchen.  The  woman  had  books  and  read  us 
stories.  I  took  a  great  fancy  to  one  of  the  girls;  and  when 
they  were  gone  I  thought  of  her  a  great  deal,  and  one  day, 
when  I  was  sitting  out  in  the  sun  by  the  house,  I  wrote  out  a 
story  in  my  mind.  I  thought  I  took  my  father's  horse  and 
followed  the  wagon,  and  finally  I  found  it,  and  they  were 
surprised  to  see  me.  I  talked  with  the  girl  and  persuaded  her 
to  elope  with  me;  and  that  night  I  put  her  on  my  horse,  and 
we  started  off  across  the  prairie.  After  several  hours  we 
came  to  a  camp;  and  when  we  rode  up  we  found  it  was  the 
one  we  had  left  a  few  hours  before,  and  we  went  in.  The  next 
night  we  tried  again,  and  the  same  thing  happened — the  horse 
came  back  to  the  same  place;  and  then  we  concluded  that  we 
ought  not  to  elope.  I  stayed  until  I  had  persuaded  her  father 
to  give  her  to  me.  I  always  meant  to  write  that  story  out  and 
publish  it,  and  I  began  once,  but  I  concluded  that  it  was  not 
much  of  a  story.  But  I  think  that  was  the  beginning  of  love 
with  me. 

Away  back  in  my  childhood,  the  earliest  days  of  my  being 
able  to  read,  I  got  hold  of  a  small  book,  Weems'  Life  of  Wash- 
ington. I  remember  all  the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battle- 
fields and  struggles  for  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  none 
fixed  themselves  upon  my  imagination  so  deeply  as  the  struggle 
at  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The  crossing  of  the  river,  the  contest 
with  the  Hessians,  the  great  hardship  endured  at  that  time,  all 
fixed  themselves  on  my  memory  more  than  any  single  Revolu- 
tionary event.  I  recollect  thinking  then,  boy  even  though  I 
was,  that  there  must  have  been  something  more  than  common 
that  these  men  struggled  for. 


6  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1824-31 

1824.  I  was  raised  to  farm  work,  which  I  continued  till 
I  was  twenty-two. 

Spring,  182/.  He  undertakes  to  run  a  ferry  across  the 
Ohio,  sixteen  miles  from  home. 

Summer,  1827.  I  was  contemplating  a  new  flatboat,  and 
wondering  whether  I  could  make  it  stronger  or  improve  it  in 
any  particular,  when  two  men  came  down  to  the  shore  in  car- 
riages with  trunks,  and  looking  at  the  different  boats  singled 
out  mine,  and  asked:  "Who  owns  this?"  I  answered,  somewhat 
modestly,  "I  do."  "Will  you,"  said  one  of  them,  "take  us  and 
our  trunks  out  to  the  steamer?"  "Certainly,"  said  I.  I  was 
glad  to  have  the  chance  of  earning  something.  I  supposed  that 
each  of  them  would  give  me  two  or  three  bits.  The  trunks 
were  put  on  my  flatboat,  and  the  passengers  seated  themselves 
on  the  trunks,  and  I  sculled  them  out  to  the  steamer. 

They  got  on  board,  and  I  lifted  up  their  heavy  trunks  and 
put  them  on  deck.  The  steamer  was  about  to  put  on  steam 
again,  when  I  called  out  that  they  had  forgotten  to  pay  me. 
Each  of  them  took  from  his  pocket  a  silver  half-dollar  and 
threw  it  on  the  floor  of  my  boat.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my 
eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money.  I  could  scarcely  credit  that  I, 
a  poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar  in  less  than  a  day  and  that  by 
honest  work.  The  world  seemed  fairer  and  wider  before  me. 
I  was  a  more  hopeful  and  confident  being  from  that  hour. 

1828.  When  I  was  nineteen,  still  residing  in  Indiana,  I 
made  my  first  trip  upon  a  flatboat  to  New  Orleans.  I  was  a 
hired  man  merely,  and  I  and  a  son  of  the  owner,  without  any 
other  assistance,  made  the  trip.  The  nature  of  part  of  the 
"cargo  load,"  as  it  was  called,  made  it  necessary  for  us  to  linger 
and  trade  along  the  sugar-coast,  and  one  night  we  were  attacked 
by  seven  negroes  with  intent  to  kill  and  rob  us.  We  were  hurt 
some  in  the  melee,  but  succeeded  in  driving  the  negroes  from 
the  boat,  and  then  "cut  cable,"  "weighed  anchor,"  and  left. 


age  15-22]       AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  7 

February  12th,  1830.  When  I  came  of  age  I  did  not  know 
much.  Still,  somehow,  I  could  read,  write,  and  cipher  to  the 
rule  of  three,  but  that  was  all.  I  was  never  in  a  college  or 
academy  as  a  student.  What  I  have  in  the  way  of  education  I 
have  picked  up,  from  time  to  time  under  pressure  of  necessity. 

March  1st.  I,  having  just  completed  my  twenty-first  year, 
my  father  and  family,  with  the  families  of  the  two  daughters 
and  sons-in-law  of  my  stepmother,  left  the  old  homestead  in 
Indiana  and  came  to  Illinois.  Their  mode  of  conveyance  was 
wagons  drawn  by  ox-teams,  and  I  drove  one  of  the  teams. 
They  reached  the  County  of  Macon  and  stopped  there  some 
time  within  the  same  month  of  March.  My  father  and  family 
settled  a  new  place  on  the  north  side  of  the  Sangamon  River, 
at  the  junction  of  the  timber  land  and  prairie,  about  ten  miles 
westerly  from  Decatur.  Here  they  built  a  log  cabin  into  which 
they  removed,  and  made  sufficient  of  rails  to  fence  ten  acres 
of  ground,  fenced  and  broke  the  ground,  and  raised  a  crop  of 
sown  corn  upon  it  in  the  same  year. 

1830-1831.  In  the  autumn  all  hands  were  greatly  afflicted 
with  ague  and  fever,  to  which  they  had  not  been  used,  and  by 
which  they  were  greatly  discouraged,  so  much  so  that  they 
determined  on  leaving  the  county.  They  remained,  however, 
through  the  succeeding  winter  of  the  very  celebrated  "deep 
snow"  of  Illinois. 

March,  1831.  I,  together  with  my  stepmother's  son,  John 
D.  Johnston,  and  John  Hanks,  yet  residing  in  Macon  County, 
hired  ourselves  to  Denton  Offutt  to  take  a  flatboat  from 
Beardstown,  Illinois,  to  New  Orleans;  and  for  that  purpose 
were  to  join  him — Offutt — at  Springfield,  Illinois,  as  soon  as 
the  snow  should  go  off.  When  it  did  go  off,  which  was  about 
the  first  of  March,  183 1,  the  county  was  so  flooded  as  to  make 
traveling  by  land  impracticable;  to  obviate  which  difficulty  we 
purchased  a  large  canoe,  and  came  down  the  Sangamon  River 
in  it.  This  is  the  time  and  the  manner  of  my  first  entrance 
into  Sangamon  County. 


8  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1831-32 

Summer.  We  found  Offutt  at  Springfield,  but  learned 
from  him  that  he  had  failed  in  getting  a  boat  at  Beardstown. 
This  led  to  our  hiring  ourselves  to  him  for  twelve  dollars  per 
month  each,  and  getting  the  timber  out  of  the  trees  and  build- 
ing a  boat  at  Old  Sangamon  town  on  the  Sangamon  River, 
seven  miles  northwest  of  Springfield,  which  boat  we  took  to 
New  Orleans,  substantially  upon  the  old  contract. 

July.  New  Salem.  During  this  boat-enterprise  acquaint- 
ance with  Offutt,  who  was  previously  an  entire  stranger,  he 
conceived  a  liking  for  me  and  believed  he  could  turn  me  to 
account.  He  contracted  with  me  to  act  as  clerk  for  him  on 
my  return  from  New  Orleans,  in  charge  of  a  store  and  mill  at 
New  Salem,  then  in  Sangamon,  now  in  Menard  County. 

Autumn.  For  the  first  time,  as  it  were,  by  myself,  at  New 
Salem.    Here  I  rapidly  made  acquaintances  and  friends. 

1832.  After  I  was  twenty-three  and  had  separated  from 
my  father  I  studied  English  grammar — imperfectly,  of  course. 

1832,  early:  Decides  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Legis- 
lature of  Illinois. 

(At  a  political  meeting.)  I  presume  you  all  know  who  I  am. 
I  am  humble  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  been  solicited  by  many 
friends  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature.  My  politics 
are  short  and  sweet,  like  the  old  woman's  dance.  I  am  in  favor 
of  a  national  bank.  I  am  in  favor  of  the  internal-improvement 
system,  and  a  high  protective  tariff.  These  are  my  sentiments 
and  political  principles.  If  elected,  I  shall  be  thankful;  if  not, 
it  will  be  all  the  same. 

Makes  his  first  attempt  at  formal  literary  expression — a 
statement  of  views  upon  local  questions  agreeable  to  almost  all 
his  community,  coupled  with  a  naive  account  of  himself. 

March  gth.  (Address  to  the  people  of  Sangamon  County.) 
Fellow-citizens :  Having  become  a  candidate  for  the  honorable 


age  22-23]       AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  9 

office  of  one  of  your  Representatives  in  the  next  General 
Assembly  of  this  State,  in  accordance  with  an  established  cus- 
tom and  the  principles  of  true  Republicanism,  it  becomes  my 
duty  to  make  known  to  you,  the  people  whom  I  propose  to 
represent,  my  sentiments  with  regard  to  local  affairs. 

Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition.  Whether 
it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  I  have  no  other  so 
great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my  fellow-men,  by 
rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem.  How  far  I  shall  suc- 
ceed in  gratifying  this  ambition  is  yet  to  be  developed,  I  am 
young,  and  unknown  to  many  of  you.  I  was  borri,  and  have 
ever  remained,  in  the  most  humble  walks  of  life.  I  have  no 
wealthy  or  popular  relations  or  friends  to  recommend  me.  My 
case  is  thrown  exclusively  upon  the  independent  voters  of  the 
county;  and,  if  elected,  they  will  have  conferred  a  favor  upon 
me  for  which  I  shall  be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to  compen- 
sate. But,  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom  shall  see  fit  to 
keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been  too  familiar  with  dis- 
appointments to  be  very  much  chagrined. 

f April  When  the  Black  Hawk  War  of  1832  broke  out, 
joined  a  volunteer  company,  and,  to  my  own  surprise,  was 
elected  Captain  of  it. 

Went  to  the  campaign,  served  near  three  months,  met  the 
ordinary  hardships  of  such  an  expedition,  but  was  in  no  battle. 

April  28th.    At  Beardstown. 

Received  April  28,  1832,  for  the  use  of  the  Sangamon 
County  company  under  my  command,  thirty  muskets,  bayonets, 
screws,  and  wipers,  which  I  oblige  myself  to  return  upon 
demand. 

(His  company  is  marching  in  line  toward  a  gate  and  he 
can  not  remember  the  proper  command  for  "getting  the  com- 
pany through  the  gate  endwise.")  So,  as  we  came  near  the 
gate,  I  shouted,  'The  company  is  dismissed  for  two  minutes, 
when  it  will  fall  in  again  on  the  other  side  of  the  gate." 


io  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1832-33 

In  the  days  of  the  Black  Hawk  War  I  fought,  bled,  and 
came  away.  Speaking  of  General  Cass's  career  reminds  me  of 
my  own.  I  was  not  at  Stillman's  defeat,  but  I  was  about  as 
near  it  as  Cass  was  to  Hull's  surrender ;  and,  like  him,  I  saw 
the  place  very  soon  afterward.  It  is  quite  certain  that  I  did 
not  break  my  sword,  for  I  had  none  to  break;  but  I  bent  a 
musket  pretty  badly  on  one  occasion.  If  Cass  broke  his  sword, 
the  idea  is  that  he  broke  it  in  desperation;  I  bent  the  musket 
by  accident.  If  General  Cass  went  in  advance  of  me  in  picking 
whortleberries,  I  guess  I  surpassed  him  in  charges  on  the  wild 
onions.  If  he  saw  any  live  fighting  Indians  it  was  more  than 
I  did,  but  I  had  a  good  many  bloody  struggles  with  the  mos- 
quitoes, and  although  I  never  fainted  from  the  loss  of  blood,  I 
can  truly  say  that  I  was  often  very  hungry. 

June.  In  regard  to  the  time  David  Rankin  served,  the 
enclosed  discharge  shows  correctly — as  well  as  I  can  recollect — 
having  no  writing  to  refer.  The  transfer  of  Rankin  from 
my  company  occurred  as  follows: — Rankin  having  lost  his 
horse  at  Dixon's  ferry,  and  having  acquaintance  in  one  of  the 
foot  companies  who  were  going  down  the  river,  was  desirous 
to  go  with  them,  and  one  Galishen,  being  an  acquaintance  of 
mine,  and  belonging  to  the  company  in  which  Rankin  wished 
to  go,  wished  to  leave  it  and  join  mine;  this  being  the  case  it 
was  agreed  that  they  should  exchange  places  and  answer  to 
each  other's  names — as  it  was  expected  we  all  would  be  dis- 
charged in  very  few  days. 

Comes  up  with  his  company  just  after  the  skirmish  at 
Kellogg's  Grove  and  buries  the  dead. 

We  rode  up  the  little  hill  where  their  camp  was.  The  red 
light  of  the  morning  sun  was  streaming  upon  them  as  they 


age  23-24]       AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  11 

lay  heads  toward  us  on  the  ground.  And  every  man  had  a 
round  red  spot  on  the  top  of  his  head  about  as  big  as  a  dollar 
where  the  redskins  had  taken  his  scalp.  It  was  frightful,  but 
it  was  grotesque ;  and  the  red  sunlight  seemed  to  paint  every- 
thing all  over.     One  man  had  buckskin  breeches  on. 

August  6th.  Returning  from  the  campaign,  and  encour- 
aged by  great  popularity  among  my  immediate  neighbors,  I 
ran  for  the  Legislature  and  was  beaten — my  own  precinct,  how- 
ever, casting  its  votes  two  hundred  and  seventy-seven  for  and 
seven  against  me- — and  that,  too,  while  I  was  an  avowed  Clay 
man,  and  the  precinct  the  autumn  afterward  gave  a  majority 
of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  to  General  Jackson  over  Mr.  Clay. 

Autumn.  I  was  now  without  means  and  out  of  business 
but  Was  anxious  to  remain  with  my  friends  who  had  treated 
me  with  so  much  generosity,  especially  as  I  had  not  elsewhere 
to  go.  I  studied  what  I  should  do — thought  of  learning  the 
blacksmith  trade — thought  of  trying  to  study  law — rather 
thought  I  could  not  succeed  at  that  without  a  better  education. 
Before  long,  strangely  enough,  a  man  offered  to  sell,  and  did 
sell,  to  me  and  another  as  poor  as  myself,  an  old  stock  of  goods, 
upon  credit.  We  opened  as  merchants.  Of  course  we  did 
nothing  but  get  deeper  and  deeper  in  debt. 

March  6th,  1833.  Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  we, 
William  F.  Berry,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  John  Bowling  Green, 
are  held  and  firmly  bound  unto  the  County  Commissioners  of 
Sangamon  County  in  the  full  sum  of  three  hundred  dollars  to 
which  payment  well  and  truly  to  be  made  we  bind  ourselves, 
our  heirs,  executors  and  administrators  firmly  by  these  pres- 
ents, sealed  with  our  seal  and  dated  this  6th  day  of  March 
A.  D.  1833.  Now  the  condition  of  this  obligation  is  such  that 
whereas  the  said  Berry  &  Lincoln  has  obtained  a  license  from 
the  County  Commissioners'  Court  to  keep  a  tavern  in  the  town 
of  New  Salem  to  continue  one  year.     Now  if  the  said  Berry 


12  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1833-35 

&  Lincoln  shall  be  of  good  behavior  and  observe  all  the  laws 
of  this  State  relative  to  tavern  keepers — then  this  obligation 
to  be  void  or  otherwise  remain  in  full  force. 

Abraham  Lincoln  (Seal) 
Wm.  F.  Berry  (Seal) 
Bowling  Green        (Seal) 

One  day  a  man  who  was  migrating  to  the  West  drove  up 
in  front  of  my  store  with  a  wagon  which  contained  his  family 
and  household  plunder.  He  asked  me  if  I  would  buy  an  old 
barrel  for  which  he  had  no  room  in  his  wagon  and  which  he 
said  contained  nothing  of  special  value.  I  did  not  want  it,  but 
to  oblige  him  I  bought  it,  and  paid  him,  I  think,  half  a  dollar 
for  it.  Without  further  examination  I  put  it  away  in  the  store 
and  forgot  all  about  it.  Some  time  after,  in  overhauling 
things,  I  came  upon  the  barrel,  and  emptying  it  upon  the  floor 
to  see  what  it  contained,  I  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  rubbish 
a  complete  edition  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries.  I  began  to 
read  those  famous  works,  and  I  had  plenty  of  time ;  for  during 
the  long  summer  days,  when  the  farmers  were  busy  with  their 
crops,  my  customers  were  few  and  far  between.  The  more  I 
read  the  more  intensely  interested  I  became.  Never  in  my 
whole  life  was  my  mind  so  thoroughly  absorbed,  I  read  until 
I  devoured  them. 

May.  Appointed  postmaster  at  New  Salem — the  office 
being  too  insignificant  to  make  my  politics  an  objection.  The 
store  winked  out. 

Firm  of  Lincoln  and  Berry  fails  leaving  a  heavy  debt 
which  Lincoln  assumes.  This  debt  embarrasses  him  for  fif- 
teen years. 

Autumn.  That  debt  was  the  greatest  obstacle  I  have  ever 
met  in  my  life;  I  had  no  way  of  speculating,  and  could  not 


age  24-26]       AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  13 

earn  enough  money  except  by  labor,  and  to  earn  by  labor 
eleven  hundred  dollars  besides  my  living  seemed  the  work  of  a 
lifetime.  There  was,  however,  but  one  way.  I  went  to  the 
creditors,  and  told  them  that  if  they  would  let  me  alone  I  would 
give  them  all  I  could  earn  over  my  living,  as  fast  as  I  could 
earn  it. 

The  surveyor  of  Sangamon  offered  to  depute  to  me  that 
portion  of  his  work  which  was  within  my  part  of  the  county. 
Accepted,  procured  a  compass  and  chain,  studied  Flint  and 
Gibson  a  little,  and  went  to  it.  This  procured  bread,  and  kept 
soul  and  body  together. 

Autumn,  1834.  The  election  of  1834  came,  and  I  was 
then  elected  to  the  Legislature  by  the  highest  vote  ever  cast 
for  any  candidate.  Major  John  T.  Stuart,  then  in  full  practise 
of  the  law,  was  also  elected.  During  the  canvass,  in  a  private 
conversation  he  encouraged  me  to  study  law.  After  the  elec- 
tion I  borrowed  books  of  Stuart,  took  them  home  with  me, 
and  went  at  it  in  good  earnest.  I  studied  with  nobody.  I  still 
mixed  in  the  surveying  to  pay  board  and  clothing  bills. 

He  continues  also  to  be  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  and  to 
eke  out  a  very  scanty  livelihood. 

December.  When  the  Legislature  met,  the  law  books 
were  dropped,  but  were  taken  up  again  at  the  end  of  the  session. 

1835,  New  Salem. 

Love  affair  of  Lincoln  and  Ann  Rutledge.  Her  sudden 
death  of  an  epidemic,  in  August,  casts  him  into  desperate  mel- 
ancholy from  which  he  emerges  slowly. 

Autumn.  I  can  never  be  reconciled  to  have  the  snow, 
rains  and  storms  beat  upon  her  grave ! 


i4  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1836 

(At  the  grave  of  Ann  Rutledge.)    My  heart  is  buried  there. 
1836.    Stands  for  re-election  to  the  Legislature. 

June  13th.  (To  the  Editor  of  the  Journal.)  In  your 
paper  of  last  Saturday,  I  see  a  communication,  over  the  signa- 
ture of  "Many  Voters,"  in  which  the  candidates  who  are 
announced  in  the  Journal  are  called  upon  to  "show  their 
hands."     Agreed.     Here's  mine. 

I  go  for-  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government  who 
assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go  for  admitting 
all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay  taxes  or  bear  arms 
(by  no  means  excluding  females). 

If  elected,  I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of  Sangamon 
my  constituents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as  those  that  sup- 
port me. 

While  acting  as  their  Representative,  I  shall  be  governed 
by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which  I  have  the  means  of 
knowing  what  their  will  is ;  and  upon  all  others,  I  shall  do  what 
my  own  judgment  teaches  me  will  best  advance  their  interests. 
Whether  elected  or  not,  I  go  for  distributing  the  proceeds  of 
the  sales  of  the  public  lands  to  the  several  States,  to  enable  our 
State,  in  common  with  others,  to  dig  canals  and  construct  rail- 
roads without  borrowing  money  and  paying  the  interest  on  it. 

If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  I  shall  vote  for 
Hugh  L.  White  for  President. 

June  2 1 st.  (To  Robert  Allen.)  I  am  told  that  during  my 
absence  last  week  you  passed  through  this  place,  and  stated 
publicly  that  you  were  in  possession  of  a  fact  or  facts,  which 
if  known  to  the  public,  would  entirely  destroy  the  prospects  of 
N.  W.  Edwards  and  myself  at  the  ensuing  elections,  but  that 
through  favor  to  us,  you  should  forbear  to  divulge  them.  No 
one  has  needed  favors  more  than  I,  and,  generally,  few  have 
been  less  unwilling  to  accept  them,  but  in  this  case  favor  to  me 
would  be  injustice  to  the  public,  and  therefore  I  must  beg  your 


age  27]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  15 

pardon  for  declining  it.  That  I  once  had  the  confidence  of  the 
people  of  Sangamon  is  sufficiently  evident;  and  if  I  have  since 
done  anything,  either  by  design  or  misadventure,  which  if 
known  would  subject  me  to  a  forfeiture  of  that  confidence,  he 
that  knows  of  that  thing,  and  conceals  it,  is  a  traitor  to  his 
country's  interest. 

I  find  myself  wholly  unable  to  form  any  conjecture  of  what 
fact  or  facts,  real  or  supposed,  you  spoke;  but  my  opinion  of 
your  veracity  will  not  permit  me  for  a  moment  to  doubt  that 
you  at  least  believed  what  you  said.  I  am  flattered  with  the 
personal  regard  you  manifested  for  me;  but  I  do  hope  that,  on 
more  mature  reflection,  you  will  view  the  public  interest  as  a 
paramount  consideration,  and  therefore  determine  to  let  the 
worst  come. 

I  assure  you  that  the  candid  statement  of  facts  on  your 
part,  however  low  it  may  sink  me,  shall  never  break  the  tie  of 
personal  friendship  between  us. 

I  wish  an  answer  to  this,  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  publish 
both,  if  you  choose. 

During  the  campaign  of  1836—% 

(Attacking  an  opponent  accused  of  graft,  whose  residence 
carried  an  enormous  lightning-rod.)  The  gentleman  com- 
menced his  speech  by  saying  that  this  young  man  would  have 
to  be  taken  down,  and  he  was  sorry  the  task  devolved  upon 
him.  I  am  not  so  young  in  years  as  I  am  in  the  tricks  and 
trade  of  a  politician ;  but  live  long  or  die  young,  I  would  rather 
die  now  than,  like  the  gentleman,  change  my  politics  and  simul- 
taneous with  the  change,  receive  an  office  worth  three  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  and  then  have  to  erect  a  lightning-rod  over  my 
house  to  protect  a  guilty  conscience  from  an  offended  God. 

(To  some  farmers  after  he  had  been  driving  with  a  more 
prosperous  opponent.)     I  am  too  poor  to  own  a  carriage,  but 


16  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1836 

my  friend  has  generously  invited  me  to  ride  with  him.  I  want 
you  to  vote  for  me  if  you  will;  but  if  not,  then  vote  for  my 
opponent,  for  he  is  a  fine  man. 

Re-elected  to  tJie  Legislature. 

September  pth.  Obtains  a  license  to  practise  law.  In  a 
sort  of  desperate  reaction  after  the  tragedy  of  Ann  Rutledge 
he  becomes  entangled  in  a  curious  love  affair, 

November.  (To  Mrs.  O.  H.  Browning.)  In  the  autumn 
of  1836,  a  married  lady  of  my  acquaintance,  and  who  was  a 
great  friend  of  mine,  being  about  to  pay  a  visit  to  her  father 
and  other  relatives  residing  in  Kentucky,  proposed  to  me  that 
on  her  return  she  would  bring  a  sister  of  hers  with  her  on  con- 
dition that  I  would  engage  to  become  her  brother-in-law  with 
all  convenient  despatch.  I,  of  course,  accepted  the  proposal, 
for  I  could  not  have  done  otherwise  had  I  really  been  adverse 
to  it ;  but  I  was  most  confoundedly  well  pleased  with  the  proj- 
ect. I  had  seen  the  said  sister  some  three  years  before,  thought 
her  intelligent  and  agreeable,  and  saw  no  good  objection  to 
plodding  life  through  hand  in  hand  with  her.  Time  passed 
on,  the  lady  took  her  journey  and  in  due  time  returned,  sister 
(Mary  Owens)  in  company,  sure  enough.  This  astonished 
me  a  little;  for  it  appeared  to  me  that  her  coming  so  readily 
showed  that  she  was  a  trifle  too  willing;  but  on  reflection  it 
occurred  to  me  that  she  might  have  been  prevailed  on  by  her 
married  sister  to  come,  without  anything  concerning  me  having 
been  mentioned  to  her;  and  so  I  concluded  that  if  no  objection 
presented  itself,  I  would  consent  to  waive  this.  All  this  oc- 
curred to  me  on  hearing  of  her  arrival  in  the  neighborhood; 
for,  be  it  remembered,  I  had  not  seen  her,  except  about  three 
years  previous,  as  above  mentioned.  In  a  few  days  we  had  an 
interview,  and  although  I  had  seen  her  before,  she  did  not  look 


age  27]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  17 

as  my  imagination  had  pictured  her.  I  knew  she  was  over-size, 
but  now  she  appeared  a  fair  match  for  Falstaf f.  I  knew  she 
was  called  an  "old  maid,"  and  I  felt  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of 
at  least  half  of  the  appellation,  but  now,  when  I  beheld  her, 
I  could  not  for  my  life  avoid  thinking  of  my  mother;  and  this, 
not  from  withered  features,  for  her  skin  was  too  full  of  fat  to 
permit  of  its  contracting  into  wrinkles,  but  from  her  want  of 
teeth,  weather-beaten  appearance  in  general,  and  from  a  kind 
of  notion  that  ran  in  my  head  that  nothing  could  have  com- 
menced at  the  size  of  infancy  and  reached  her  present  bulk  in 
less  than  thirty-five  or  forty  years;  and,  in  short,  I  was  not 
at  all  pleased  with  her.  But  what  could  I  do  ?  I  had  told  her 
sister  that  I  would  take  her  for  better  or  for  worse ;  and  I  made 
a  point  of  honor  and  conscience  in  all  things  to  stick  to  my 
word,  especially  if  others  had  been  induced  to  act  on  it,  which 
in  this  case  I  had  no  doubt  they  had;  for  I  was  now  fairly  con- 
vinced that  no  other  man  on  earth  would  have  her,  and  hence 
the  conclusion  that  they  were  bent  on  holding  me  to  my  bar- 
gain. "Well/'  thought  I,  "I  have  said  it,  and,  be  the  conse- 
quences what  they  may,  it  shall  not  be  my  fault  if  I  fail  to  do 
it."  At  once  I  determined  to  consider  her  my  wife,  and  this 
done,  all  my  powers  of  discovery  were  put  to  work  in  search 
of  perfections  in  her  which  might  be  fairly  set  off  against  her 
defects.  I  tried  to  imagine  her  handsome,  which,  but  for  her 
unfortunate  corpulency,  was  actually  true.  Exclusive  of  this, 
no  woman  that  I  have  ever  seen  had  a  finer  face.  I  also  tried 
to  convince  myself  that  the  mind  was  much  more  to  be  valued 
than  the  person;  and  in  this  she  was  not  inferior  so  far  as  I 
could  discover,  to  any  with  whom  I  had  been  acquainted. 

December.  Without  attempting  to  come  to  any  positive 
understanding  with  her,  I  set  out  for  Vandalia. 

December  13th.    Vandalia. 

(To  Miss  Mary  Owens.)  I  have  been  sick  ever  since  my 
arrival,  or  I  should  have  written  sooner.    It  is  but  little  differ- 


1 8  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1836 

ence,  however,  as  I  have  very  little  even  yet  to  write.  And 
more,  the  longer  I  can  avoid  the  mortification  of  looking  in  the 
post-office  for  your  letter  and  not  finding  it,  the  better.  You 
see  I  am  mad  about  that  old  letter  yet.  I  don't  like  very  well 
to  risk  you  again.    I'll  try  you  once  more,  anyhow. 

Our  chance  to  take  the  seat  of  government  to  Springfield 
is  better  than  I  expected.  An  internal-improvement  convention 
was  held  here  since  we  met,  which  recommended  a  loan  of 
several  millions  of  dollars,  on  the  faith  of  the  State,  to  con- 
struct railroads.  Some  of  the  Legislature  are  for  it,  and  some 
against  it ;  which  has  the  majority  I  can  not  tell. 

You  recollect  that  I  mentioned  at  the  outset  of  this  letter 
that  I  had  been  unwell.  That  is  the  fact,  though  I  believe  I 
am  about  well  now;  but  that,  with  other  things  I  can  not  ac- 
count for,  have  conspired,  and  have  gotten  my  spirits  so  low 
that  I  feel  that  I  would  rather  be  any  place  in  the  world  than 
here.  I  really  can  not  endure  the  thought  of  staying  here  ten 
weeks.  Write  back  as  soon  as  you  get  this,  and,  if  possible, 
say  something  that  will  please  me,  for  really  I  have  not  been 
pleased  since  I  left  you.  This  letter  is  so  dry  and  stupid  that 
I  am  ashamed  to  send  it,  but  with  my  present  feelings  I  can 
not  do  any  better. 


1837 

Young  Lincoln  develops  a  sarcastic  vein  which  he  indulges 
in  his  political  speeches. 

January.  (In  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Illinois, 
upon  the  resolution  offered  by  Mr.  Linder,  to  institute  an 
inquiry  into  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  State  Bank.) 
Mr.  Chairman :  Lest  I  should  fall  into  the  too  common  error 
of  being  mistaken  in  regard  to  which  side  I  design  to  be  upon, 
I  shall  make  it  my  first  care  to  remove  all  doubt  on  that  point 
by  declaring  that  I  am  opposed  to  the  resolution  under  consid- 
eration, in  toto.  Before  I  proceed  to  the  body  of  the  subject,  I 
will  further  remark  that  it  is  not  without  a  considerable  degree 
of  apprehension  that  I  venture  to  cross  the  track  of  the  gentle- 
man from  Coles  (Mr.  Linder).  Indeed,  I  do  not  believe  I 
could  muster  a  sufficiency  of  courage  to  come  in  contact  with 
that  gentleman,  were  it  not  for  the  fact,  that  he,  some  days 
since,  most  graciously  condescended  to  assure  us  that  he  would 
never  be  found  wasting  ammunition  on  small  game.  On  the 
same  fortunate  occasion  he  further  gave  us  to  understand  that 
he  regarded  himself  as  being  decidedly  the  superior  of  our 
common  friend  from  Randolph  (Mr.  Shields) ;  and  feeling, 
as  I  really  do,  that  I,  to  say  the  most  of  myself,  am  nothing 
more  than  the  peer  of  our  friend  from  Randolph,  I  shall  regard 
the  gentleman  from  Coles  as  decidedly  my  superior  also,  and 
consequently,  in  the  course  of  what  I  shall  have  to  say,  when- 
ever I  shall  have  occasion  to  allude  to  that  gentleman,  I  shall 
endeavor  to  adopt  that  kind  of  court  language  which  I  under- 

19 


20  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1837 

stand  to  be  due  to  decided  superiority.  In  one  faculty,  at  least, 
there  can  be  no  dispute  of  the  gentleman's  superiority  over  me, 
and  most  other  men;  and  that  is,  the  faculty  of  entangling  a 
subject,  so  that  neither  himself,  nor  any  other  man,  can  find 
head  or  tail  to  it.  Here  he  has  introduced  a  resolution,  embrac- 
ing ninety-nine  printed  lines  across  common  writing  paper, 
and  yet  more  than  one  half  of  his  opening  speech  has  been 
made  upon  subjects  about  which  there  is  not  one  word  said 
in  his  resolution. 

By  a  general  view  of  the  resolution,  it  will  be  seen  that  a 
principal  object  of  the  committee  is  to  examine  into,  and  ferret 
out,  a  mass  of  corruption,  supposed  to  have  been  committed  by 
the  commissioners  who  apportioned  the  stock  of  the  Bank.  I 
believe  it  is  universally  understood  and  acknowledged  that  all 
men  will  ever  act  correctly  unless  they  have  a  motive  to  do 
otherwise.  If  this  be  true,  we  can  only  suppose  that  the  com- 
missioners acted  corruptly,  by  also  supposing  that  they  were 
bribed  to  do  so.  Taking  this  view  of  the  subject,  I  would  ask 
if  the  Bank  is  likely  to  find  it  more  difficult  to  bribe  the  com- 
mittee of  seven,  which  we  are  about  to  appoint,  than  it  may 
have  found  it  to  bribe  the  commissioners  ? 

(Here  Mr.  Linder  called  to  order.  The  Chair  decided  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  out  of  order.  Mr.  Linder  appealed  to  the 
House;  but  before  the  question  was  put,  withdrew  his  appeal, 
saying  he  preferred  to  let  the  gentleman  go  on;  he  thought  he 
would  break  his  own  neck.    Mr.  Lincoln  proceeded)  : 

Another  gracious  condescension;  I  acknowledge  it  with 
gratitude.  I  know  I  was  not  out  of  order;  and  I  know  every 
sensible  man  in  the  House  knows  it.  I  was  not  saying  that 
the  gentleman  from  Coles  could  be  bribed,  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  will  I  say  he  could  not.  In  that  particular  I  leave  him 
where  I  found  him.  I  was  only  endeavoring  to  show  that  there 
was  at  least  as  great  a  probability  of  any  seven  members  that 
could  be  selected  from  this  House  being  bribed  to  act  corruptly, 


age  28]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  21 

as  there  was  that  the  twenty-four  commissioners  had  been  so 
bribed. 

These  are  twenty- four  of  the  most  respectable  men  in  the 
State.  Probably  no  twenty-four  men  could  be  selected  in  the 
State  with  whom  the  people  are  better  acquainted,  or  in  whose 
honor  and  integrity  they  would  more  readily  place  confidence. 
And  I  now  repeat  that  there  is  less  probability  that  those  men 
have  been  bribed  and  corrupted  than  that  any  seven  men,  or 
rather  any  six  men,  that  could  be  selected  from  the  members 
of  this  House,  might  be  so  bribed  and  corrupted ;  even  though 
they  were  headed  and  led  on  by  "decided  superiority"  himself. 

The  half -hear  ted  courtship  of  Mary  Owens  drags  on. 

February.  During  my  stay  [at  Vandalia]  I  had  letters 
from  Mary  Owens  which  did  not  change  my  opinion  of  either 
her  intellect  or  intention,  but,  on  the  contrary,  confirmed  it 
in  both. 

All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed,  "firm  as  the  surge- 
repelling  rock"  in  my  resolution,  I  found  I  was  continually 
repenting  the  rashness  which  had  led  me  to  make  it.  Through 
life  I  have  been  in  no  bondage,  either  real  or  imaginary,  from 
the  thraldom  of  which  I  so  much  desired  to  be  free. 

At  the  close  of  a  debate  on  slavery  in  the  Legislature  Lin- 
coln takes  a  position  that  hardly  any  one  opposes. 

March  3rd. 

Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery  having 
passed  both  branches  of  the  General  Assembly  at  its  present 
session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest  against  the  passage  of 
the  same. 

They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on 
both  injustice  and  bad  policy;  but  that  the  promulgation  of 
abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than  abate  its  evils. 


22  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1837 

They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  no 
power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  different  States. 

They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  the 
power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power  ought  not  to  be  exercised, 
unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of  the  District. 

The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those  contained 
in  the  said  resolutions  is  their  reason  for  entering  this  protest. 

Dan  Stone, 
A.  Lincoln, 
(Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon.) 

April  1st.     New  Salem. 

After  my  return  home  from  the  Legislature  I  saw  nothing 
to  change  my  opinion  of  Mary  Owens  in  any  particular.  She 
was  the  same,  and  so  was  I.  I  now  spent  my  time  in  planning 
how  I  might  get  along  in  life  after  my  contemplated  change  in 
circumstances  should  have  taken  place,  and  how  I  might  pro- 
crastinate the  evil  day  for  a  time,  which  I  really  dreaded  as 
much,  perhaps  more,  than  an  Irishman  does  the  halter. 

15th.  Removed  to  Springfield,  and  commenced  the  prac- 
tise of  law— my  old  friend  Stuart  taking  me  into  partnership. 

(To  Joshua  Speed,  of  whom  Lincoln  had  asked  credit  on 
coming  to  Springfield  to  live.)  If  I  fail  in  this  (attempt  to 
practise  law)  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  ever  pay  you. 

(Speed,  thinking  he  has  never  seen  a  sadder  face:  You 
seem  to  be  so  much  pained  at  contracting  so  small  a  debt,  I 
think  I  can  suggest  a  plan  by  which  you  can  avoid  the  debt, 
and  at  the  same  time  attain  your  end.  I  have  a  large  room 
with  a  double  bed  upstairs,  which  you  are  very  welcome  to 
share  with  me.) 

(Lincoln)  :    Where  is  your  room? 

(Speed:  Upstairs.) 


age  28]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  23 

(After  taking  his  saddlebags  upstairs  and  coming  down, 
his  face  beaming  with  pleasure.)     Well  Speed,  I'm  moved. 

Still  in  two  minds  about  Mary  Owens. 

May  yth.     Springfield. 

(To  Miss  Mary  Owens.)  I  have  commenced  two  letters 
to  send  you  before  this,  both  of  which  displeased  me  before  I 
got  half  done,  and  so  I  tore  them  up.  The  first  I  thought  was 
not  serious  enough,  and  the  second  was  on  the  other  extreme. 
I  shall  send  this,  turn  out  as  it  may. 

This  thing  of  living  in  Springfield  is  rather  a  dull  business, 
after  all ;  at  least  it  is  to  me.  I  am  quite  as  lonesome  here  as  I 
ever  was  anywhere  in  my  life.  I  have  been  spoken  to  by  but 
one  woman  since  I  have  been  here,  and  should  not  have  been 
by  her  if  she  could  have  avoided  it.  I've  never  been  to  church, 
and  probably  shall  not  be  soon.  I  stay  away  because  I  am 
conscious  I  should  not  know  how  to  behave  myself. 

I  am  often  thinking  of  what  we  said  about  your  coming  to 
live  at  Springfield.  I  am  afraid  you  would  not  be  satisfied. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  flourishing  about  in  carriages  here, 
which  it  would  be  your  doom  to  see  without  sharing  it.  You 
would  have  to  be  poor,  without  the  means  of  hiding  your  pov- 
erty. Do  you  believe  you  could  bear  that  patiently  ?  Whatever 
woman  may  cast  her  lot  with  mine,  should  any  ever  do  so,  it  is 
my  intention  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  make  her  happy  and 
contented;  and  there  is  nothing  I  can  imagine  that  would  make 
me  more  unhappy  than  to  fail  in  the  effort.  I  know  I  should 
be  much  happier  with  you  than  the  way  I  am,  provided  I  saw 
no  signs  of  discontent  in  you.  What  you  have  said  to  me  may 
have  been  in  the  way  of  jest,  or  I  may  have  misunderstood  it. 
If  so,  then  let  it  be  forgotten;  if  otherwise,  I  much  wish  you 
would  think  seriously  before  you  decide.  What  I  have  said  I 
will  most  positively  abide  by,  provided  you  wish  it.   My  opinion 


24  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1837 

is  that  you  had  better  not  do  it.  You  have  not  been  accustomed 
to  hardship,  and  it  may  be  more  severe  than  you  now  imagine. 
I  know  you  are  capable  of  thinking  correctly  on  any  subject, 
and,  if  you  deliberate  maturely  upon  this  before  you  decide, 
then  I  am  willing  to  abide  your  decision. 

You  must  write  me  a  good  long  letter  after  you  get  this. 
You  have  nothing  else  to  do,  and  though  it  might  not  seem 
interesting  to  you  after  you  had  written  ijt,  it  would  be  a  good 
deal  of  company  to  me  in  this  "busy  wilderness.',  Tell  your 
sister  I  don't  want  to  hear  any  more  about  selling  out  and 
moving.     That  gives  me  the  hypo  whenever  I  think  of  it. 

August  16th.  (To  Miss  Mary  Owens.)  You  will  no 
doubt  think  it  rather  strange  that  I  should  write  you  a  letter 
on  the  same  day  on  which  we  parted ;  and  I  can  only  account 
for  it  by  supposing  that  seeing  you  lately  makes  me  think  of 
you  more  than  usual;  while  at  our  late  meeting  we  had  but 
few  expressions  of  thoughts.  You  must  know  that  I  can  not 
see  you  or  think  of  you  with  entire  indifference ;  and  yet  it  may 
be  that  you  are  mistaken  in  regard  to  what  my  real  feelings 
toward  you  are.  If  I  knew  you  were  not,  I  should  not  trouble 
you  with  this  letter.  Perhaps  any  other  man  would  know 
enough  without  further  information;  but  I  consider  it  my 
peculiar  right  to  plead  ignorance,  and  your  bounden  duty  to 
allow  the  plea. 

I  want  in  all  cases  to  do  right,  and  most  particularly  so  in 
all  cases  with  women.  I  want,  at  this  particular  time,  more 
than  anything  else,  to  do  right  with  you ;  and  if  I  knew  it  would 
be  doing  right,  as  I  rather  suspect  it  would,  to  let  you  alone, 
I  would  do  it.  And,  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  matter  as 
plain  as  possible,  I  now  say  that  you  can  drop  the  subject,  dis- 
miss your  thoughts  (if  you  ever  had  any)  from  me  forever, 
and  leave  this  letter  unanswered,  without  calling  forth  one 
accusing  murmur  from  me.  And  I  will  even  go  further,  and 
say,  that,  if  it  will  add  anything  to  your  comfort  or  peace  of 


age  28]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  25 

mind  to  do  so,  it  is  my  sincere  wish  that  you  should.  Do  not 
understand  that  I  wish  to  cut  your  acquaintance.  I  mean  no 
such  thing.  What  I  do  wish  is  that  our  further  acquaintance 
shall  depend  upon  yourself.  If  such  further  acquaintance 
would  contribute  nothing  to  your  happiness,  I  am  sure  it  would 
not  to  mine.  If  you  feel  yourself  in  any  degree  bound  to  me, 
I  am  now  willing  to  release  you,  provided  you  wish  it ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  I  am  willing  and  even  anxious  to  bind  you 
faster,  if  I  can  be  convinced  that  it  will,  in  any  considerable 
degree,  add  to  your  happiness.  This,  indeed,  is  the  whole 
question  with  me.  Nothing  would  make  me  more  miserable 
than  to  believe  you  miserable — nothing  more  happy  than  to 
know  you  were  so. 

In  what  I  have  now  said,  I  think  I  can  not  be  misunder- 
stood; and  to  make  myself  understood  is  the  only  object  of 
this  letter. 

If  it  suits  you  best  not  to  answer  this,  farewell.  A  long 
life  and  a  merry  one  attend  you.  But  if  you  conclude  to  write 
back,  speak  as  plainly  as  I  do.  There  can  be  neither  harm  nor 
danger  in  saying  to  me  anything  you  think,  just  in  the  manner 
you  think  it. 

Again  his  sarcastic  bent  is  displayed. 

October  28th.  (Denunciation  of  a  political  enemy.)  Gen- 
eral Adams'  publications  and  outdoor  maneuvering  taken  in 
connection  with  the  editorial  articles  of  the  Republican,  are  not 
more  foolish  and  contradictory  than  they  are  ludicrous  and 
amusing.  One  week  the  Republican  notifies  the  public  that 
General  Adams  is  preparing  an  instrument  that  will  tear,  rend, 
split,  rive,  blow  up,  confound,  overwhelm,  annihilate,  extin- 
guish, exterminate,  burst  asunder  and  grind  to  powder  all  its 
slanderers,  and  particularly  Talbott  and  Lincoln — all  of  which 
is  to  be  done  in  due  time.    Then  for  two  or  three  weeks  all  is 


26  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1837 

calm — not  a  word  said.  Again  the  Republican  comes  forth 
with  a  mere  passing  remark  that  "Public  opinion  has  decided  in 
favor  of  General  Adams,"  and  intimates  that  he  will  give  him- 
self no  more  trouble  about  the  matter.  In  the  meantime  Adams 
himself  is  prowling  about,  and  as  Burns  says  of  the  Devil,  "For 
prey,  a'  holes  and  corners  tryin',"  and  in  one  instance,  goes  so 
far  as  to  take  an  old  acquaintance  of  mine  several  steps  from  a 
crowd  and  apparently  weighed  down  with  the  importance  of  his 
business,  gravely  and  solemnly  asks  him  if  "he  ever  heard  Lin- 
coln say  he  was  a  deist/'  Anon  the  Republican  comes  again, 
"We  invite  the  attention  of  the  public  to  General  Adams'  com- 
munication," &c,  "The  victory  is  a  great  one,"  "The  triumph 
is  overwhelming."  (I  really  believe  the  editor  of  the  Illinois 
Republican  is  fool  enough  to  think  General  Adams  is  an  honest 
man.)  Then  General  Adams  leads  off — "Authors  most 
egregiously  mistaken''  &c, — "most  wo f idly  shall  their  pre- 
sumption be  punished,"  &c,  (Lord,  have  mercy  on  us.)  "The 
hour  is  yet  to  come,  yea  nigh  at  hand — (how  long  first  do  you 
reckon?) — when  the  Journal  and  its  junto  shall  say,  I  have  ap- 
peared too  early." — "Then  infamy  shall  be  laid  bare  to  the 
public  gaze."  Suddenly  the  General  appears  to  relent  at  the 
severity  with  which  he  is  treating  us  and  he  exclaims,  "The 
condemnation  of  my  enemies  is  the  inevitable  residt  of  my  own 
defense"  For  your  health's  sake,  dear  General,  do  not  permit 
your  tenderness  of  heart  to  afflict  you  so  much  on  our  account. 
For  some  reason  (perhaps  because  we  are  killed  so  quickly) 
we  shall  never  be  sensible  of  our  suffering. 

Finally  breaks  with  Mary  Owens. 

Autumn.  (To  Mrs.  O.  H.  Browning.)  After  all  my  suf- 
fering upon  this  deeply  interesting  subject,  here  I  am,  wholly, 
unexpectedly,  completely  out  of  "the  scrape" ;  and  I  now  want 
to  know  if  you  can  guess  how  I  got  out  of  it— out,  clear,  in 


age  28]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  27 

every  sense  of  the  term — no  violation  of  word,  honor,  or  con- 
science. I  don't  believe  you  can  guess,  and  so  I  might  as  well 
tell  you  at  once.  As  the  lawyer  says,  it  was  done  in  the  manner 
following,  to  wit :  After  I  had  delayed  the  matter  as  long  as  I 
thought  I  could  in  honor  do  (which,  by  the  way,  had  brought 
me  round  into  last  fall),  I  concluded  I  might  as  well  bring  it  to 
a  consummation  without  further  delay,  and  so  I  mustered  my 
resolution  and  made  the  proposal  to  her  direct;  but,  shocking 
to  relate,  she  answered,  No.  At  first  I  supposed  she  did  it 
through  an  affectation  of  modesty,  which  I  thought  but  ill 
became  her  under  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  her  case,  but 
on  my  renewal  of  the  charge,  I  found  she  repelled  it  with 
greater  firmness  than  before.  I  tried  it  again  and  again,  but 
with  the  same  success,  or  rather  with  the  same  want  of  success. 
I  finally  was  forced  to  give  it  up,  at  which  I  very  unex- 
pectedly found  myself  mortified  almost  beyond  endurance.  I 
was  mortified,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  hundred  different  ways. 
My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded  by  the  reflection  that  I  had  so 
long  been  too  stupid  to  discover  her  intentions,  and  at  the  same 
time  never  doubting  that  I  understood  them  perfectly ;  and  also 
that  she,  whom  I  had  taught  myself  to  believe  nobody  else 
would  have,  had  actually  rejected  me  with  all  my  fancied  great- 
ness. And,  to  cap  the  whole,  I  then  for  the  first  time  began  to 
suspect  that  I  was  really  a  little  in  love  with  her.  But  let  it  all 
go!  I'll  try  and  outlive  it.  Others  have  been  made  fools  of 
by  girls;  but  this  can  never  with  truth  be  said  of  me.  I  most 
emphatically,  in  this  instance,  made  a  fool  of  myself.  I  have 
now  come  to  the  conclusion  never  again  to  think  of  marrying, 
and  for  this  reason:  I  can  never  be  satisfied  with  any  one  who 
would  be  blockhead  enough  to  have  me. 


1838-1841 

By  this  time  he  is  a  leading  member  of  the  Young  Men's 
Lyceum,  of  Springfield.  The  stormy  events  of  the  year  1837, 
including  the  murder  of  Owen  Love  joy,  are  soon  followed  by 
a  defense  of  law  by  young  Lincoln. 

January  27th,  1838.  As  a  subject  for  the  remarks  of  the 
evening,  "The  Perpetuation  of  our  Political  Institutions"  is 
selected. 

All  the  armies  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  combined,  with 
all  the  treasure  of  the  earth  (our  own  excepted)  in  their  mili- 
tary chest,  with  a  Bonaparte  for  a  commander,  could  not  by 
force  take  a  drink  from  the  Ohio  or  make  a  track  on  the  Blue 
Ridge  in  a  trial  of  a  thousand  years. 

At  what  point,  then,  is  the  approach  of  danger  to  be  ex- 
pected ?  I  answer,  If  it  ever  reach  us  it  must  spring  up  among 
us;  it  can  not  come  from  abroad.  If  destruction  be  our  lot  we 
must  ourselves  be  its  author  and  finisher.  As  a  nation  of 
freemen  we  must  live  through  all  time  or  die  by  suicide. 

I  hope  I  am  over-wary ;  but  if  I  am  not,  there  is  even  now 
something  of  ill  omen  among  us.  I  mean  the  increasing  dis- 
regard for  law  which  pervades  the  country — the  growing 
disposition  to  substitute  the  wild  and  furious  passions  in  lieu 
of  the  sober  judgment  of  courts,  and  the  worse  than  savage 
mobs  for  the  executive  ministers  of  justice.  Here,  then,  is  one 
point  at  which  danger  may  be  expected. 

The  question  recurs,  "How  shall  we  fortify  against  it?" 
The  answer  is  simple.     Let  every  American,  every  lover  of 

28 


age  3o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  29 

liberty,  every  well-wisher  to  his  posterity,  swear  by  the  blood 
of  the  Revolution  never  to  violate  in  the  least  particular  the 
laws  of  the  country,  and  never  to  tolerate  their  violation  by 
others. 

When  I  so  pressingly  urge  a  strict  observance  of  all  the 
laws,  let  me  not  be  understood  as  saying  there  are  no  bad  laws, 
or  that  grievances  may  not  arise  for  the  redress  of  which  no 
legal  provisions  have  been  made.  I  mean  to  say  no  such  thing. 
But  I  do  mean  to  say  that  although  bad  laws,  if  they  exist, 
should  be  repealed  as  soon  as  possible,  still,  while  they  continue 
in  force,  for  the  sake  of  example,  they  should  be  religiously 
observed.  So  also  in  unprovided  cases.  If  such  arise,  let 
proper  legal  provisions  be  made  for  them  with  the  least  pos- 
sible delay,  but  till  then  let  them,  if  not  too  intolerable,  be  borne 
with.  There  is  no  grievance  that  is  a  fit  object  of  redress  by 
mob  law. 

Re-elected  to  the  Legislature. 

He  soon  draws  up  a  petition  not  strictly  political. 

October  10th,  1839.  (To  the  Honorable  Mrs.  Browning.*) 
We,  the  undersigned,  respectfully  represent  to  your  Honoress, 
that  we  are  in  great  need  of  your  society  in  the  town  of 
Springfield  and  therefore  humbly  pray  that  your  Honoress 
will  repair  forthwith  to  the  seat  of  Government  bringing  in 
your  train  all  ladies  in  general  who  may  be  at  your  command 
and  all  Mrs.  Browning's  sisters  in  particular,  and  as  faithful 
and  dutiful  petitioners  we  promise  that  if  you  grant  this  our 
request,  we  will  render  unto  your  Honoress  due  attention  and 
faithful  obedience  to  your  orders  in  general  and  to  Miss  Brown- 
ing's in  particular. 

In  tender  consideration  whereof  we  pray  your  Honoress  to 


*See  p.  16.     Her  husband  Orville  H.  Browning  was  one  of  his  closest 
friends. 


3o  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1839-40 

grant  your  humble  petitioners  their  above  request  and  such 
other  and  further  relief  in  the  premises  as  to  your  Honoress 
may  seem  right  and  proper;  and  your  petitioners  as  in  duty 
bound  will  ever  pray,  etc. 

His  vein  of  quaint  humor  enlivens  his  legal  correspondence.* 

December  23rd.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  Doctor  Henry 
will  write  you  all  the  political  news.  I  write  this  about  some 
little  matters  of  business.  You  recollect  you  told  me  you  had 
drawn  the  Chicago  Masack  money  and  sent  it  to  the  claimants. 
A  d — d  hawk-billed  Yankee  is  here  besetting  me  at  every  turn 
I  take,  saying  that  Robert  Kinzie  never  received  the  eighty 
dollars  to  which  he  was  entitled. 

Can  you  tell  anything  about  the  matter?  Again,  old  Mr. 
Wright,  who  lives  up  South  Fork  somewhere,  is  teasing  me 
continually  about  some  deeds  which  he  says  he  left  with  you, 
but  which  I  can  find  nothing  of.    Can  you  tell  where  they  are  ? 

During  this  year  he  has  become  engaged  to  Mary  Todd,  a 
Springfield  belle,  whose  social  position  was  very  much  higher 
titan  his  own. 

But  his  new  love  affair  does  not  in  any  way  check  his  politi- 
cal enterprise. 

January  20th,  1840.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  Be  sure  to 
send  me  as  many  copies  of  the  Life  of  Harrison  as  you  can 
spare  from  other  uses.  Be  very  sure  to  procure  and  send  me 
the  Senate  Journal  of  New  York  of  September,  18 14.  I  have 
a  newspaper  article  which  says  that  that  document  proves  that 
Van  Buren  voted  against  raising  troops  in  the  last  war.  And, 
in  general,  send  me  everything  you  think  will  be  a  good  "war- 
club." 

You  have  heard  that  the  Whigs  and  Locos  had  a  political 


*See  particularly  p.  53- 


u 


HARPERS  Wl 


age  30-31]       AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  31 

discussion  shortly  after  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature.  Well, 
I  made  a  big  speech  which  is  in  progress  of  printing  in  pam- 
phlet form. 

March  1st.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  I  have  never  seen  the 
prospects  of  our  party  so  bright  in  these  parts  as  they  are  now. 
We  shall  carry  this  county  by  a  larger  majority  than  we  did 
in  1836. 

I  think  my  prospects  individually  are  not  very  flattering, 
for  I  think  it  probable  I  shall  not  be  permitted  to  be  a  candi- 
date; but  the  party  ticket  will  succeed  triumphantly. 

Yesterday  Douglas,  having  chosen  to  consider  himself  in- 
sulted by  something  in  the  Journal,  undertook  to  cane  Francis 
in  the  street.  Francis  caught  him  by  the  hair  and  jammed  him 
back  against  a  market  cart  where  the  matter  ended  by  Francis 
being  pulled  away  from  him.  The  whole  affair  was  so  ludi- 
crous that  Francis  and  everybody  else  (Douglas  excepted) 
have  been  laughing  about  it  ever  since. 

26th.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  We  have  had  a  convention 
for  nominating  candidates  in  this  county.  Baker  was  put  on 
the  track  for  the  Senate,  and  Bradford,  Brown  of  the  Island 
Grove,  Josiah  Francis,  Darneille,  and  I  for  the  House. 
Ninian  Edwards  was  very  much  hurt  at  not  being  nominated, 
but  he  has  become  tolerably  well  reconciled.  I  was  much,  very 
much,  wounded  myself  at  his  being  left  out.  The  fact  is,  the 
county  delegates  made  the  nominations  as  they  pleased;  and 
they  pleased  to  make  them  all  from  the  county,  except  Baker 
and  me,  whom  they  supposed  necessary  to  make  stump  speeches. 

Re-elected  to  the  Legislature. 

January  1st,  1841.  Engagement  broken  for  some  reason 
not  certainly  known.  Much  gossip  grows  out  of  the  event. 
Lincoln  is  again  plunged  into  deep  melancholy  and  repeats  to 
some  degree  the  gloomy  experiences  which  followed  the  death 
of  Ann  Rutlcdge. 


32  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1841 

January  23rd-.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  Yours  of  the 
3d  instant  is  received,  and  I  proceed  to  answer  it  as  well  as  I 
can,  though  from  the  deplorable  state  of  my  mind  at  this  time 
I  fear  I  shall  give  you  but  little  satisfaction. 

On  last  evening  there  was  a  meeting  of  our  friends  at 
Butler's,  and  I  submitted  the  question  to  them,  and  found  them 
unanimously  in  favor  of  having  you  announced  as  a  candidate. 
A  few  of  us  this  morning,  however,  concluded  that  as  you  were 
already  being  announced  in  the  papers,  we  would  delay  an- 
nouncing you,  as  by  your  own  authority,  for  a  week  or  two. 
We  thought  that  to  appear  too  keen  about  it  might  spur  our 
opponents  on  about  their  general  ticket  project.  Upon  the 
whole,  I  think  I  may  say  with  certainty  that  your  re-election 
is  sure,  if  it  be  in  the  power  of  the  Whigs  to  make  it  so. 

For  not  giving  you  a  general  summary  of  news,  you  must 
pardon  me ;  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  do  so.  I  am  now  the  most 
miserable  man  living.  If  what  I  feel  were  equally  distributed 
to  the  whole  human  family,  there  would  not  be  one  cheerful 
face  on  the  earth.  Whether  I  shall  ever  be  better,  I  can  not 
tell ;  I  awfully  forbode  I  shall  not.  To  remain  as  I  am  is  impos- 
sible; I  must  die  or  be  better,  it  appears  to  me.  The  matter 
you  speak  of  on  my  account  you  may  attend  to  as  you  say, 
unless  you  shall  hear  of  my  condition  forbidding  it.  I  say  this 
because  I  fear  I  shall  be  unable  to  attend  to  any  business  here, 
and  a  change  of  scene  might  help  me.  If  I  could  be  myself, 
I  would  rather  remain  at  home  with  Judge  Logan.  I  can  write 
no  more. 

Before  long  he  emerges  from  his  first  gloom  but  is  not  fully 
himself  for  a  long  while. 

February  5th.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  Some  of  us  here 
have  concluded  that  if  it  is  agreeable,  Bat  Webb  shall  be  our 
District  Attorney.     He  would  accept  the  place,  but  will  not 


age  32]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  33 

enter  into  a  scramble  for  it.  We  hear,  or  at  least  I  know,  of  no 
other  applicant.  I  will  add  that  I  really  have  my  heart  set 
upon  Webb's  appointment  to  this  place,  and  that  I  believe  the 
whole  party  would  be  gratified  with  it. 

He  finds  solace  in  renewed  political  activity. 

26th.  The  undersigned  can  not  assent  to  the  passage  of 
the  bill  (reorganizing  the  State  Judiciary)  or  permit  it  to  be- 
come a  law  without  this  evidence  of  their  disapprobation;  and 
they  now  protest  against  the  reorganization  of  the  judiciary, 
because — (1)  It  violates  the  great  principles  of  free  govern- 
ment by  subjecting  the  judiciary  to  the  Legislature.  (2)  It  is  a 
fatal  blow  at  the  independence  of  the  judges  and  the  constitu- 
tional term  of  their  office.  (3)  It  is  a  measure  not  asked  for, 
or  wished  for,  by  the  people.  (4)  It  will  greatly  increase  the 
expense  of  our  courts,  or  else  greatly  diminish  their  utility. 
(5)  It  will  give  our  courts  a  political  and  partisan  character, 
thereby  impairing  public  confidence  in  their  decisions.  (6)  It 
will  impair  our  standing  with  other  States  and  the  world. 
(7)  It  is  a  party  measure  for  party  purposes,  from  which  no 
practical  good  to  the  people  can  possibly  arise,  but  which  may 
be  the  source  of  immeasurable  evils. 

The  undersigned  are  well  aware  that  this  protest  will  be 
altogether  unavailing  with  the  majority  of  this  body.  The 
blow  has  already  fallen,  and  we  are  compelled  to  stand  by,  the 
mournful  spectators  of  the  ruin  it  will  cause. 

April  14th.  End  of  firm  of  Stuart  and  Lincoln,  which  is 
succeeded  by  the  firm  of  Logan  and  Lincoln. 

May.  He  is  involved  in  a  faint  love  affair  with  a  young 
girl,  Sarah  Richard.* 


*Of  this  rather  shadowy  affair,  which  appears  to  have  comprised  the 
reaction  after  his  torment  over  Mary  Todd,  very  little  is  known.  The 
lady  herself,  twenty-five  years  after,  told  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  that  Lincoln 
proposed  to  her  and  was  rejected.     The  contemporary  record  is  in  a  few 


34  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1841 

June.  He  goes  to  Kentucky  and  makes  a  visit  to  the  rela- 
tives of  Speed.    Soon  after  his  return — 

September  2jth,  Bloomington.  (To  Miss  Mary  Speed.) 
Having  resolved  to  write  to  some  of  your  mother's  family, 
and  not  having  the  express  permission  of  any  one  of  them  to 
do  so,  I  have  had  some  little  difficulty  in  determining  on  which 
to  inflict  the  task  of  reading  what  I  now  feel  must  be  a  most 
dull  and  silly  letter;  but  when  I  remembered  that  you  and  I 
were  something  of  cronies  while  I  was  at  Farmington,  and 
that  while  there  I  was  under  the  necessity  of  shutting  you  up 
in  a  room  to  prevent  your  committing  an  assault  and  battery 
upon  me,  I  instantly  decided  that  you  should  be  the  devoted 
one.  I  assume  that  you  have  not  heard  from  Joshua  and  myself 
since  we  left,  because  I  think  it  doubtful  whether  he  has 
written.  You  remember  there  was  some  uneasiness  about 
Joshua's  health  when  we  left.  That  little  indisposition  of  his 
turned  out  to  be  nothing  serious,  and  it  was  pretty  nearly  for- 
gotten when  we  reached  Springfield.  We  got  on  board  the 
steamboat  Lebanon  in  the  locks  of  the  canal,  about  twelve 
o'clock  m.  of  the  day  we  left,  and  reached  St.  Louis  the  next 
Monday  at  8  p.  m.  Nothing  of  interest  happened  during  the 
passage,  except  the  vexatious  delays  occasioned  by  the  sand- 
bars we  thought  interesting.  By  the  way,  a  fine  example  was 
present  on  board  the  boat  for  contemplating  the  effect  of  con- 
dition upon  human  happiness.  A  gentleman  had  purchased 
twelve  negroes  in  different  parts  of  Kentucky  and  was  taking 
them  to  a  farm  in  the  South.  They  were  chained  six  and  six 
together.  A  small  iron  clevis  was  around  the  left  wrist  of  each, 
and  this  was  fastened  to  the  main  chain  by  a  shorter  one  at  a 
convenient  distance  from  the  others,  so  that  the  negroes  were 
strung  together  precisely  like  so  many  fish  upon  a  trot-line.    In 

rather  cryptic  sentences  scattered  through  the  letters  to  Speed.  The  orig- 
inal editors  suppressed  the  name,  at  Speed's  request.  See  The  Real  Lin- 
coln, 67-68. 


age  32]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  35 

this  condition  they  were  being  separated  forever  from  the 
scenes  of  their  childhood,  their  friends,  their  fathers  and  moth- 
ers, and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  many  of  them  from  their 
wives  and  children,  and  going  into  perpetual  slavery,  where  the 
lash  of  the  master  is  proverbially  more  ruthless  and  unrelenting 
than  any  other  where;  and  yet  amid  all  these  distressing  cir- 
cumstances, as  we  would  think  them,  they  were  the  most  cheer- 
ful and  apparently  happy  creatures  on  board.  One  whose  of- 
fense for  which  he  had  been  sold  was  an  over-fondness  for  his 
wife,  played  the  fiddle  almost  continually,  and  the  others 
danced,  sang,  cracked  jokes  and  played  various  games  with 
cards  from  day  to  day.  How  true  it  is  that  "God  tempers  the 
wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,"  or  in  other  words,  that  He  renders 
the  worst  of  human  conditions  tolerable,  while  He  permits  the 
best  to  be  nothing  better  than  tolerable.  To  return  to  the  nar- 
rative. When  we  reached  Springfield,  I  stayed  but  one  day 
when  I  started  on  this  tedious  circuit  where  I  now  am.  Do  you 
remember  my  going  to  the  city  while  I  was  in  Kentucky  to 
have  a  tooth  extracted,  and  making  a  failure  of  it?  Well,  that 
same  old  tooth  got  to  paining  me  so  much  that  about  a  week 
since  I  had  it  torn  out,  bringing  with  it  a  bit  of  the  jaw-bone, 
the  consequence  of  which  is  that  my  mouth  is  now  so  sore 
that  I  can  neither  talk  nor  eat. 

I  am  literally  "subsisting  on  savory  remembrances,, — that 
is,  being  unable  to  eat,  I  am  living  upon  the  remembrance  of 
the  delicious  dishes  of  peaches  and  cream  we  used  to  have  at 
your  house.  When  we  left,  Miss  Fanny  Henning  was  owing 
you  a  visit,  as  I  understood.  Has  she  paid  it  yet?  If  she  has, 
are  you  not  convinced  that  she  is  one  of  the  sweetest  girls  in 
the  world?  There  is  but  one  thing  about  her,  so  far  as  I  could 
perceive,  that  I  would  have  otherwise  than  as  it  is — that  is, 
something  of  a  tendency  to  melancholy.  This,  let  it  be  ob- 
served, is  a  misfortune,  not  a  fault. 

Give  her  an  assurance  of  my  very  highest  regard  when 


36  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [i&n 

you  see  her.    Is  little  Siss  Eliza  Davis  at  your  house  yet?    If 
she  is,  kiss  her  "o'er  and  o'er  again"  for  me. 

Tell  your  mother  that  I  have  not  got  her  "present'*  [an 
"Oxford"  Bible]  with  me,  but  I  intend  to  read  it  regularly 
when  I  return  home.  I  doubt  not  that  it  is  really,  as  she  says, 
the  best  cure  for  the  blues,  could  one  but  take  it  according  to 
the  truth. 

Now  quite  himself  again  and  once  more  in  full  political 
career. 

October  20th.  The  undersigned,  acting,  as  is  believed,  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Whig  party,  and  in  compli- 
ance with  their  duties  as  the  Whig  Central  Committee  of  this 
State,  appoint  the  third  Monday  of  December  next  for  the 
meeting  of  a  Whig  State  Convention,  at  Springfield,  for  the 
purpose  of  nominating  candidates  for  the  offices  of  Governor 
and  Lieutenant-Governor  of  this  State  for  the  coming 
election. 

A.  G.  Henry,  J.  F.  Speed,  A.  Lincoln, 

E.  D.  Baker,  Wm.  L  May, 

Whig  State  Central  Committee 


1842 

Speed  having  become  engaged  to  be  married,  suffers  a 
period  of  introspection,  dissecting  his  own  motives,  which  ap- 
pears to  resemble  the  experience  through  which  Lincoln  had 
passed  before  the  breaking  of  his  engagement  to  Mary  Todd. 
Having  recovered  himself  he  seeks  to  lead  Speed  to  recovery. 

January  3rd.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  Feeling,  as  you 
know  I  do,  the  deepest  solicitude  for  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise you  are  engaged  in,  [his  engagement  to  be  married]  I 
adopt  this  as  the  last  method  I  can  adopt  to  aid  you,  in  case 
(which  God  forbid)  you  shall  need  any  aid.  I  do  not  place 
what  I  am  going  to  say  on  paper  because  I  can  say  it  better  that 
way  than  I  could  by  word  of  mouth,  but,  were  I  to  say  it  orally 
before  we  part,  most  likely  you  would  forget  it  at  the  very 
time  when  it  might  do  you  some  good.  As  I  think  it  reasonable 
that  you  will  feel  very  badly  some  time  between  this  and  the 
final  consummation  of  your  purpose,  it  is  intended  that  you 
shall  read  this  just  at  such  a  time.  Why  I  say  it  is  reasonable 
that  you  will  feel  very  badly  yet,  is  because  of  three  special 
causes  added  to  the  general  one  which  I  shall  mention. 

The  general  cause  is,  that  you  are  naturally  of  a  nervous 
temperament;  and  this  I  say  from  what  I  have  seen  of  you 
personally,  and  what  you  have  told  me  concerning  your  mother 
at  various  times,  and  concerning  your  brother  William  at  the 
time  his  wife  died. 

The  first  special  cause  is  your  exposure  to  bad  weather  on 
your  journey,  which  my  experience  clearly  proves  to  be  very 
severe  on  defective  nerves.     The  second  is  the  absence  of  all 

37 


38  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1842 

business  and  conversation  of  friends,  which  might  divert  your 
mind,  give  it  occasional  rest  from  the  intensity  of  thought 
which  will  sometimes  wear  the  sweetest  idea  threadbare,  and 
turn  it  to  the  bitterness  of  death.  The  third  is  the  rapid  and 
near  approach  of  that  crisis  on  which  all  your  thoughts  and 
feelings  concentrate. 

If  from  all  these  causes  you  shall  escape  and  go  through 
triumphantly,  without  another  "twinge  of  the  soul,"  I  shall  be 
most  happily  but  not  egregiously  deceived.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
you  shall,  as  I  expect  you  will  at  some  time,  be  agonized  and 
distressed,  let  me,  who  have  some  reason  to  speak  with  judg- 
ment of  such  a  subject,  beseech  you  to  ascribe  it  to  the  causes 
I  have  mentioned,  and  not  to  some  false  and  ruinous  suggestion 
of  the  Devil. 

I  know  what  the  painful  point  with  you  is  at  all  times  when 
you  are  unhappy ;  it  is  an  apprehension  that  you  do  not  love  her 
as  you  should.  What  nonsense !  How  came  you  to  court  her  ? 
Was  it  because  you  thought  she  deserved  it,  and  that  you  had 
given  her  reason  to  expect  it? 

Say  candidly,  were  not  those  heavenly  black  eyes  the  whole 
basis  of  all  your  early  reasoning  on  the  subject  ?  After  you  and 
I  had  once  been  at  the  residence,  did  you  not  go  and  take  me 
all  the  way  to  Lexington  and  back,  for  no  other  purpose  but  to 
get  to  see  her  again,  on  your  return  that  evening  to  take  a 
trip  for  that  express  object? 

What  earthly  consideration  would  you  take  to  find  her 
scouting  and  despising  you,  and  giving  herself  up  to  another? 
But  of  this  you  have  no  apprehension;  and  therefore  you  can 
not  bring  it  home  to  your  feelings. 

February  3rd.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  You  well  know 
that  I  do  not  feel  my  own  sorrows  much  more  keenly  than  I 
do  yours,  when  I  know  of  them;  and  yet  I  assure  you  I  was 
not  much  hurt  by  what  you  wrote  me  of  your  excessively  bad 
feeling  at  the  time  you  wrote.     Not  that  I  am  less  capable  of 


age  33]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  39 

sympathizing  with  you  now  than  ever,  not  that  I  am  less  your 
friend  than  ever,  but  because  /  hope  and  believe  that  your  pres- 
ent anxiety  and  distress  about  her  health  and  her  life  must  and 
will  forever  banish  those  horrid  doubts  which  I  know  you 
sometimes  felt  as  to  the  truth  of  your  affection  for  her.  If 
they  can  once  and  forever  be  removed  (and  I  almost  feel  a 
presentiment  that  the  Almighty  has  sent  your  present  affliction 
expressly  for  that  object),  surely  nothing  can  come  in  their 
stead  to  fill  their  immeasurable  measure  of  misery.  The  death 
scenes  of  those  we  love  are  surely  painful  enough;  but  these 
we  are  prepared  for  and  expect  to  see ;  they  happen  to  all,  and 
all  know  they  must  happen.  Painful  as  they  are,  they  are  not 
an  unlooked-for  sorrow.  Should  she,  as  you  fear,  be  destined 
to  an  early  grave,  it  is  indeed  a  great  consolation  to  know  that 
she  is  so  well  prepared  to  meet  it.  Her  religion,  which  you 
once  disliked  so  much,  I  will  venture  you  now  prize  most 
highly. 

Why,  Speed,  if  you  did  not  love  her,  although  you  might 
not  wish  her  death,  you  would  most  certainly  be  resigned  to  it. 
Perhaps  this  point  is  no  longer  a  question  with  you,  and  my 
pertinacious  dwelling  upon  it  is  a  rude  intrusion  upon  your 
feelings.  If  so,  you  must  pardon  me.  You  know  the  hell  I 
have  suffered  on  that  point,  and  how  tender  I  am  upon  it. 
You  know  I  do  not  mean  wrong.  I  have  been  quite  clear  of 
hypo  since  you  left ;  even  better  than  I  was  along  in  the  fall. 

13th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  Yours  of  the  1st  instant 
came  to  hand  three  or  four  days  ago.  When  this  shall  reach 
you,  you  will  have  been  Fanny's  husband  several  days.  You 
know  my  desire  to  befriend  you  is  everlasting;  that  I  will  never 
cease  while  I  know  how  to  do  anything. 

But  you  will  always  hereafter  be  on  ground  that  I  never 
occupied,  and  consequently,  if  advice  were  needed,  I  might 
advise  wrong.  I  do  fondly  hope,  however,  that  you  will  never 
again  need  any  comfort  from  abroad.     But,  should  I  be  mis- 


4o  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1842 

taken  in  this,  should  excessive  pleasure  still  be  accompanied 
with  a  painful  counterpart  at  times,  still  let  me  urge  you,  as  I 
have  ever  done,  to  remember,  in  the  depth  and  even  agony  of 
despondency,  that  very  shortly  you  are  to  feel  well  again.  I  am 
now  fully  convinced  that  you  love  her  as  ardently  as  you  are 
capable  of  loving.  Your  ever  being  happy  in  her  presence, 
and  your  intense  anxiety  about  her  health,  if  there  were  noth- 
ing else,  would  place  this  beyond  all  dispute  in  my  mind.  I 
incline  to  think  it  probable  that  your  nerves  will  fail  you  occa- 
sionally for  a  while;  but  once  you  get  them  firmly  guarded 
now,  that  trouble  is  over  forever. 

Meanwhile  business  though  plentiful  is  not  lucrative. 

16th.  (To  G.  B.  Sheledy.)'  Judge  Logan  and  myself  are 
doing  business  together  now,  and  we  are  willing  to  attend  to 
your  cases  as  you  propose.  As  to  the  terms,  we  are  willing  to 
attend  each  case  you  prepare  and  send  us  for  $10  (when  there 
shall  be  no  opposition)  to  be  sent  in  advance,  or  you  know  that 
it  is  safe.  It  takes  $5.75  of  cost  to  start  upon,  that  is  $1.75  to 
clerk,  and  $2  to  each  of  two  publishers  of  papers — Judge 
Logan  thinks  it  will  take  the  balance  of  $20  to  carry  a  case 
through.  This  must  be  advanced  from  time  to  time  as  the 
services  are  performed,  as  the  officers  will  not  act  without.  I 
do  not  know  whether  you  can  be  admitted  an  attorney  of  the 
Federal  Court  in  your  absence  or  not ;  nor  is  it  material,  as  the 
business  can  be  done  in  our  names. 

The  young  lawyer-politician  champions  a  growing  but  not 
wholly  popular  movement  in  an  address  to  the  Washington 
Society  for  the  promotion  of  temperance. 

22nd.  The  warfare  heretofore  waged  against  the  demon 
intemperance  has  somehow  or  other  been  erroneous.     Either 


age  33]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  41 

the  champions  engaged  or  the  tactics  they  adopted  have  not 
been  the  most  proper.  These  champions  for  the  most  part  have 
been  preachers,  lawyers,  and  hired  agents.  Between  these  and 
the  mass  of  mankind  there  is  a  want  of  approachability,  if  the 
term  be  admissible,  partially,  at  least,  fatal  to  their  success. 
They  are  supposed  to  have  no  sympathy  of  feeling  or  interest 
with  those  very  persons  whom  it  is  their  object  to  convince  and 
persuade. 

By  the  Washingtonians  this  system  of  consigning  the 
habitual  drunkard  to  hopeless  ruin  is  repudiated.  They  adopt 
a  more  enlarged  philanthropy;  they  go  for  present  as  well  as 
future  good.  They  labor  for  all  now  living,  as  well  as  here- 
after to  live.  They  teach  hope  to  all — despair  to  none.  As 
applying  to  their  cause,  they  deny  the  doctrine  of  unpardonable 
sin;  as  in  Christianity  it  is  taught,  so  in  this  they  teach — 
"While  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn,  The  vilest  sinner  may 
return." 

"But,"  say  some,  "we  are  no  drunkards,  and  we  shall  not 
acknowledge  ourselves  such  by  joining  a  reformed  drunkards' 
society,  whatever  our  influence  might  be."  Surely  no  Chris- 
tian will  adhere  to  this  objection.  If  they  believe  as  they  pro- 
fess, that  Omnipotence  condescended  to  take  on  himself  the 
form  of  sinful  man,  and  as  such  to  die  an  ignominious  death 
for  their  sakes,  surely  they  will  not  refuse  submission  to  the 
infinitely  lesser  condescension,  for  the  temporal,  and  perhaps 
eternal,  salvation  of  a  large,  erring,  and  unfortunate  class  of 
their  fellow  creatures.  Nor  is  the  condescension  very  great. 
In  my  judgment  such  of  us  as  have  never  fallen  victims  have 
been  spared  more  by  the  absence  of  appetite  than  from  any 
mental  or  moral  superiority  over  those  who  have.  Indeed,  I 
believe  if  we  take  habitual  drunkards  as  a  class,  their  heads  and 
their  hearts  will  bear  an  advantageous  comparison  with  those 
of  any  other  class.  There  seems  ever  to  have  been  a  proneness 
in  the  brilliant  and  warm-blooded  to  fall  into  this  vice — the 


42 


A  B  R  A  H  A  M     LINCOLN  [1842 


demon  of  intemperance  ever  seems  to  have  delighted  in  suck- 
ing the  blood  of  genius  and  of  generosity.  What  one  of  us 
but  can  call  to  mind  some  relative,  more  promising  in  youth 
than  all  his  fellows,  who  has  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  his  rapacity? 
He  ever  seems  to  have  gone  forth  like  the  Egyptian  angel  of 
death,  commissioned  to  slay,  if  not  the  first,  the  fairest  born 
of  every  family.  Shall  he  now  be  arrested  in  his  desolating 
career?  In  that  arrest  all  can  give  aid  that  will;  and  who 
shall  be  excused  that  can  and  will  not?  Far  around  as  human 
breath  has  ever  blown  he  keeps  our  fathers,  our  brothers,  our 
sons,  and  our  friends  prostrate  in  the  chains  of  moral  death. 
To  all  the  living  everywhere  we  cry,  "Come  sound  the  moral 
trump,  that  these  may  rise  and  stand  up  an  exceeding  great 
army."  "Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath!  and  breathe 
upon  these  slain  that  they  may  live.',  If  the  relative  grandeur 
of  revolutions  shall  be  estimated  by  the  great  amount  of  human 
misery  they  alleviate,  and  the  small  amount  they  inflict,  then 
indeed  will  this  be  the  grandest  the  world  shall  ever  have  seen. 

25th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  Yours  of  the  16th  instant, 
announcing  that  Miss  Fanny  and  you  are  "no  more  twain,  but 
one  flesh, "  reached  me  this  morning.  I  have  no  way  of  tell- 
ing you  how  much  happiness  I  wish  you  both,  though  I  believe 
you  both  can  conceive  it.  I  feel  somewhat  jealous  of  both  of 
you  now :  you  will  be  so  exclusively  concerned  for  one  another, 
that  I  shall  be  forgotten  entirely. 

I  regret  to  learn  that  you  have  resolved  not  to  return  to 
Illinois.  I  shall  be  very  lonesome  without  you.  How  miser- 
ably things  seem  to  be  arranged  in  this  world!  If  we  have  no 
friends,  we  have  no  pleasure ;  and  if  we  have  them,  we  are  sure 
to  lose  them,  and  be  doubly  pained  by  the  loss.  I  did  hope  she 
and  you  would  make  your  home  here;  but  I  own  I  have  no 
right  to  insist.  You  owe  obligations  to  her  ten  thousand  times 
more  sacred  than  you  can  owe  to  others,  and  in  that  light  let 
them  be  respected  and  observed. 


age  33]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  43 

25th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  I  tell  you,  Speed,  our  fore- 
bodings (for  which  you  and  I  are  peculiar)  are  all  the  worst 
sort  of  nonsense.  I  fancied,  from  the  time  I  received  your 
letter  of  Saturday,  that  the  one  of  Wednesday  was  never  to 
come,  and  yet  it  did  come,  and  what  is  more,  it  is  perfectly 
clear,  both  from  its  tone  and  handwriting,  that  you  were  much 
happier,  or,  if  you  think  the  term  preferable,  less  miserable, 
when  you  wrote  it  than  when  you  wrote  the  last  one  before. 
You  had  so  obviously  improved  at  the  very  time  I  so  much 
fancied  you  would  have  grown  worse.  You  say  that  something 
indescribably  horrible  and  alarming  still  haunts  you.  You  will 
not  say  that  three  months  from  now,  I  will  venture.  When 
your  nerves  once  get  steady  now,  the  whole  trouble  will  be 
over  forever.  Nor  should  you  become  impatient  at  their  being 
even  very  slow  in  becoming  steady.  Again  you  say  you  much 
fear  that  that  Elysium  of  which  you  have  dreamed  so  much  is 
never  to  be  realized.  Well,  if  it  shall  not,  I  dare  swear  it  will 
not  be  the  fault  of  her  who  is  now  your  wife.  I  now  have  no 
doubt  that  it  is  the  peculiar  misfortune  of  both  you  and  me  to 
dream  dreams  of  Elysium  far  exceeding  all  that  anything 
earthly  can  realize.  Far  short  of  your  dreams  as  you  may  be, 
no  woman  could  do  more  to  realize  them  than  that  same  black- 
eyed  Fanny.  If  you  could  but  contemplate  her  through  my 
imagination,  it  would  appear  ridiculous  to  you  that  any  one 
should  for  a  moment  think  of  being  unhappy  with  her.  My 
old  father  used  to  have  a  saying  that  "If  you  make  a  bad  bar- 
gain, hug  it  all  the  tighter";  and  it  occurs  to  me  that  if  the 
bargain  you  have  just  closed  can  possibly  be  called  a  bad  one, 
it  is  certainly  the  most  pleasant  one  for  applying  that  maxim 
to  which  my  fancy  can  by  any  effort  picture. 

I  write  another  letter,  inclosing  this,  which  you  can  show 
her,  if  she  desires  it.  I  do  this  because  she  would  think 
strangely,  perhaps,  should  you  tell  her  that  you  received  no  let- 
ters from  me,  or,  telling  her  you  do,  refuse  to  let  her  see  them. 


44  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1842 

March  2ph.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  It  can  not  be  told 
how  it  now  thrills  me  with  joy  to  hear  you  say  you  are  "far 
happier  than  you  ever  expected  to  be."  That  much  I  know  is 
enough.  I  know  you  too  well  to  suppose  your  expectations 
were  not,  at  least,  sometimes  extravagant,  and,  if  the  reality 
exceeds  them  all,  I  say,  "Enough,  dear  Lord."  I  am  not 
going  beyond  the  truth  when  I  tell  you  that  the  short  space  it 
took  me  to  read  your  last  letter  gave  me  more  pleasure  than 
the  total  sum  of  all  I  have  enjoyed  since  the  fatal  1st  of  Jan- 
uary, 1 84 1.  Since  then  it  seems  to  me  I  should  have  been 
entirely  happy,  but  for  the  never-absent  idea  that  there  is  one 
still  unhappy  whom  I  have  contributed  to  make  so.  That  still 
kills  my  soul.  I  can  not  but  reproach  myself  for  even  wishing 
to  be  happy  while  she  is  otherwise.  She  accompanied  a  large 
party  on  the  railroad  cars  to  Jacksonville  last  Monday,  and  on 
her  return  spoke,  so  that  I  heard  of  it,  of  having  enjoyed  the 
trip  exceedingly.     God  be  praised  for  that! 

Speed  now  takes  the  role  of  adviser  and  Lincoln  begins  to 
ponder  his  own  case. 

July  4th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  As  to  my  having  been 
displeased  with  your  advice,  surely  you  know  better  than  that. 
I  know  you  do,  and  therefore  will  not  labor  to  convince  you. 
True,  that  subject  is  painful  to  me;  but  it  is  not  your  silence 
or  the  silence  of  all  the  world  that  can  make  me  forget  it.  I 
acknowledge  the  correctness  of  your  advice,  too;  but  before  I 
resolve  to  do  the  one  thing  or  the  other,  I  must  gain  my  confi- 
dence in  my  own  ability  to  keep  my  resolves  when  they  are 
made.  In  that  ability  you  know  I  once  prided  myself  as  the 
only  or  chief  gem  of  my  character:  that  gem  I  lost,  how  and 
where  you  know  too  well.  I  have  not  yet  regained  it;  and 
until  I  do,  I  can  not  trust  myself  in  any  matter  of  much  im- 
portance.    I  believe  now  that  had  you  understood  my  case  at 


age  33]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  45 

the  time  as  well  as  I  understood  yours  afterward,  by  the  aid 
you  would  have  given  me  I  should  have  sailed  through  clear; 
but  that  does  not  now  afford  me  sufficient  confidence  to  begin 
that  or  the  like  of  that  again. 

You  make  a  kind  of  acknowledgment  of  your  obligations 
to  me  for  your  present  happiness.  I  am  pleased  with  that 
acknowledgment.  But  a  thousand  times  more  am  I  pleased  to 
know  that  you  enjoy  a  degree  of  happiness  worthy  of  an 
acknowledgment.  The  truth  is,  I  am  not  sure  that  there  was 
any  merit  with  me  in  the  part  I  took  in  your  difficulty :  I  was 
drawn  to  it  by  a  fate.  If  I  would,  I  could  not  have  done  less 
than  I  did.  I  was  always  superstitious:  I  believe  God  made 
me  one  of  the  instruments  of  bringing  your  Fanny  and  you 
together,  which  union  I  have  no  doubt  He  had  foreordained. 
Whatever  He  designs  He  will  do  for  me  yet.  "Stand  still,  and 
see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord"  is  my  text  just  now.  If,  as  you 
say,  you  have  told  Fanny  all,  I  should  have  no  objection  to  her 
seeing  this  letter,  but  for  its  reference  to  our  friend  here :  let 
her  seeing  it  depend  upon  whether  she  has  ever  known  anything 
of  my  affairs;  and  if  she  has  not,  do  not  let  her. 

I  do  not  think  I  can  come  to  Kentucky  this  season.  I  am 
so  poor  and  make  so  little  headway  in  the  world  that  I  drop 
back  in  a  month  of  idleness  as  much  as  I  gain  in  a  year's  sow- 
ing. I  should  like  to  visit  you  again.  I  should  like  to  see  that 
"sis"  of  yours  that  was  absent  when  I  was  there,  though  I 
suppose  she  would  run  away  again  if  she  were  to  hear  I  was 
coming. 

Though  meditating  a  recovery  of  relations  that  may  lead 
to  matrimony,  his  fees  are  still  painfully  slight. 

14th.  (To  Samuel  D.  Marshall.)  Yours  of  the  15th 
June,  relative  to  the  suit  of  Grable  vs.  Margrave  was  duly  re- 
ceived, and  I  have  delayed  answering  it  till  now,  when  I  can 


46  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1842 

announce  the  result  of  the  case.  The  judgment  is  affirmed. 
So  soon  as  the  clerk  has  leisure  to  make  a  copy  of  the  mandate 
of  the  court,  I  will  get  him  to  do  so,  and  send  it  to  you,  by 
force  of  which  your  clerk  will  issue  an  execution. 

As  to  the  fee,  if  you  are  agreed,  let  it  be  as  follows.  Give 
me  credit  for  two  years  subscription  to  your  paper  and  send 
me  five  dollars,  in  good  money  or  the  equivalent  of  it  in  our 
Illinois  paper. 

A  reconciliation  with  Mary  Todd  is  somehow  effected 
though  neither  discloses  quite  how  it  was  done  and  gossiping 
tongues  wag  more  busily  than  ever.  Speedily  Lincoln  has  an 
opportunity  to  defend  the  lady.  Satirical  letters  signed  "Rebec- 
cah"  appear  in  the  Springfield  Journal  lampooning  a  local  politi- 
cian, James  Shields;  some  of  these  are  written  by  Lincoln,  one 
by  Mary  Todd  and  a  girl  friend.  When  Shields  becomes  en- 
raged over  the  sauciness  of  the  "Rebeccah"  letters,  Lincoln 
assumes  responsibility  for  them.  Shields  challenges  him  to  a 
duel,  Lincoln  replies: 

September  17th.  (To  Jas.  Shields,  Esq.)  Your  note  of 
to-day  was  handed  me  by  General  Whitesides.  In  that  note 
you  say  you  have  been  informed,  through  the  medium  of 
the  editor  of  the  Journal,  that  I  am  the  author  of  certain  articles 
in  that  paper  which  you  deem  personally  abusive  of  you;  and 
without  stopping  to  inquire  whether  I  really  am  the  author,  or 
to  point  out  what  is  offensive  in  them,  you  demand  an  unquali- 
fied retraction  of  all  that  is  offensive,  and  then  proceed  to  hint 
at  consequences. 

Now,  sir,  there  is  in  this  so  much  assumption  of  facts  and  so 
much  of  menace  as  to  consequences,  that  I  can  not  submit  to 
answer  that  note  any  further  than  I  have,  and  to  add  that  the 
consequences  to  which  I  suppose  you  allude  would  be  matter  of 
as  great  regret  to  me  as  it  possibly  could  to  you. 


age  33]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  47 

ipth.  (Memorandum  of  Instructions  to  E.  H.  Merryman, 
Lincoln's  Second.)  In  case  Whitesides  shall  signify  a  wish 
to  adjust  this  affair  without  further  difficulty,  let  him  know 
that  if  the  present  papers  be  withdrawn,  and  a  note  from  Mr. 
Shields  asking  to  know  if  I  am  the  author  of  the  articles  of 
which  he  complains,  and  asking  that  I  shall  make  him  gentle- 
manly satisfaction  if  I  am  the  author,  and  this  without  menace 
of  dictation  as  to  what  that  satisfaction  shall  be,  a  pledge  is 
made  that  the  following  answer  shall  be  given : — 

"I  did  write  the  'Lost  Townships'  letter  which  appeared  in 
the  Journal  of  the  2d  instant,  but  had  no  participation  in  any 
form  in  any  other  article  alluding  to  you.  I  wrote  that  wholly 
for  political  effect.  I  had  no  intention  of  injuring  your  per- 
sonal or  private  character  or  standing  as  a  man  or  a  gentleman ; 
and  I  did  not  then  think,  and  do  not  now  think,  that  that 
article  could  produce  or  has  produced  that  effect  against  you; 
and  had  I  anticipated  such  an  effect  I  would  have  forborne  to 
write  it.  And  I  will  add,  that  your  conduct  toward  me,  so  far 
as  I  know,  had  always  been  gentlemanly;  and  that  I  had  no 
personal  pique  against  you,  and  no  cause  for  any." 

If  this  should  be  done,  I  leave  it  with  you  to  arrange  what 
shall  and  what  shall  not  be  published. 

If  nothing  like  this  is  done,  the  preliminaries  of  the  fight 
are  to  be : 

1st.  Weapons: — Cavalry  broadswords  of  the  largest  size, 
precisely  equal  in  all  respects,  and  such  as  now  used  by  the 
cavalry  company  at  Jacksonville. 

2d.  Position: — A  plank  ten  feet  long,  and  from  nine  to 
twelve  inches  broad,  to  be  firmly  fixed  on  edge,  on  the  ground, 
as  the  line  between  us,  which  neither  is  to  pass  his  foot  over 
upon  forfeit  of  his  life.  Next  a  line  drawn  on  the  ground  on 
either  side  of  said  plank  and  parallel  with  it,  each  at  the  distance 
of  the  whole  length  of  the  sword  and  three  feet  additional  from 
the  plank;  and  the  passing  of  his  own  such  line  by  either 


48  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1842 

party  during  the  fight  shall  be  deemed  a  surrender  of  the 
contest. 

3d.  Time : — On  Thursday  evening  at  5  o'clock,  if  you  can 
get  it  so;  but  in  no  case  to  be  at  a  greater  distance  of  time 
than  Friday  evening  at  5  o'clock. 

4th.  Place : — Within  three  miles  of  Alton,  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river,  the  particular  spot  to  be  agreed  on  by  you. 

Any  preliminary  details  coming  within  the  above  rules  you 
are  at  liberty  to  make  at  your  discretion ;  but  you  are  in  no  case 
to  swerve  from  these  rules,  or  to  pass  beyond  their  limits. 

Quarrel  with  Shields  patched  up  by  friends  after  the  duel- 
ists have  taken  their  places. 

October  4th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  You  have  heard  of 
my  duel  with  Shields,  and  I  have  now  to  inform  you  that  the 
dueling  business  still  rages  in  this  city.  Day  before  yesterday 
Shields  challenged  Butler,  who  accepted,  and  proposed  fighting 
next  morning  at  sunrise  in  Bob  Allen's  meadow,  one  hundred 
yards'  distance,  with  rifles.  To  this  Whitesides,  Shields'  sec- 
ond, said  "no"  because  of  the  law.  Thus  ended  duel  No.  2. 
Yesterday  Whitesides  chose  to  consider  himself  insulted  by 
Doctor  Merryman,  so  sent  him  a  kind  of  g^a^-challenge,  invit- 
ing him  to  meet  him  at  the  Planter's  House  in  St.  Louis  on 
the  next  Friday,  to  settle  their  difficulty.  Merryman  made  me 
his  friend,  and  sent  a  note,  inquiring  to  know  if  he  meant  his 
note  as  a  challenge,  and  if  so,  that  he  would,  according  to  the 
law  in  such  case  made  and  provided,  prescribe  the  terms  of 
the  meeting.  Whitesides  returned  for  answer  that  if  Merry- 
man would  meet  him  at  the  Planter's  House  as  desired,  he 
would  challenge  him.  M.  replied  in  a  note  that  he  denied  W.'s 
right  to  dictate  time  and  place,  but  that  he  (M.)  would  waive 
the  question  of  time,  and  meet  him  in  Louisiana,  Missouri. 
Upon  my  presenting  this  note  to  W.  and  stating  verbally  its 


age  33]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  49 

contents,  he  declined  receiving  it,  saying  he  had  business  in 
St.  Louis,  and  it  was  as  near  as  Louisiana.  Merryman  then 
directed  me  to  notify  Whitesides  that  he  should  publish  the 
correspondence  between  them  with  such  comments  as  he 
thought  fit.  This  I  did.  Thus  it  stood  at  bedtime  last  night. 
This  morning  Whitesides,  by  his  friend  Shields,  is  praying  for 
a  new  trial,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  mistaken  in  Merryman's 
proposition  to  meet  him  at  Louisiana,  Missouri,  thinking  it 
was  the  State  of  Louisiana.  This  Merryman  hoots  at,  and  is 
preparing  his  publication ;  while  the  town  is  in  a  ferment,  and 
a  street  fight  somewhat  anticipated. 

October.  (To  his  cousin,  John  Hanks.)  Dear  John — I  am 
to  be  married  on  the  4th  of  next  month  to  Miss  Todd.  I  hope 
you  will  come  over.    Be  sure  to  be  on  deck  by  early  candle-light. 

November  4,  1842,  married  to  Mary  Todd. 

November  nth.  Nothing  new  here  [Springfield]  except 
my  marrying,  which  to  me  is  matter  of  profound  wonder. 


1843-1847 

February  14th,  1843.  (To  Richard  S.  Thomas.)  Now  if 
you  should  hear  any  one  say  that  Lincoln  don't  want  to  go  to 
Congress,  I  wish  you,  as  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  would  tell 
him  you  have  reason  to  believe  he  is  mistaken.  The  truth  is,  I 
would  like  to  go  very  much.  Still,  circumstances  may  happen 
which  may  prevent  my  being  a  candidate. 

If  there  are  any  who  be  my  friends  in  such  an  enterprise, 
what  I  now  want  is  that  they  shall  not  throw  me  away  just  yet. 

March  yth.  On  yesterday  morning  the  most  of  the  Whig 
members  of  this  District  got  together  and  agreed  to  hold  the 
convention  (to  nominate  a  member  of  Congress)  at  Tremont 
in  Tazewell  County. 

24th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  We  had  a  meeting  of  the 
Whigs  of  the  county  here  on  last  Monday  to  appoint  delegates 
to  a  district  convention ;  and  Baker  beat  me,  and  got  the  delega- 
tion instructed  to  go  for  him.  The  meeting,  in  spite  of  my 
attempt  to  decline  it,  appointed  me  one  of  the  delegates ;  so  that, 
in  getting  Baker  the  nomination  I  shall  be  fixed  a  good  deal 
like  a  fellow  who  is  made  a  groomsman  to  a  man  that  has  cut 
him  out  and  is  marrying  his  own  dear  "gal."  About  the  pros- 
pects of  your  having  a  namesake  at  our  town,  can't  say  exactly 
yet. 

The  causes  of  Lincoln's  rejection  by  the  convention  reveal 
an  attitude  toward  him  on  the  part  of  the  ultra  conservative 
part  of  the  community.  He  has  been  reading  skeptical  books 
and  has  talked  freely,  at  the  Lyceum  and  elsewhere,  in  a  way 
that  has  mystified  the  ultras. 

5° 


ace  34]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  51 

26th.  (To  Martin  M.  Morris.)  It  is  truly  gratify- 
ing to  me  to  learn  that  while  the  people  of  Sangamon  have  cast 
me  off,  my  old  friends  of  Menard,  who  have  known  me  longest 
and  best,  stick  to  me.  It  would  astonish,  if  not  amuse  the 
older  citizens,  to  learn  that  I  (a  stranger,  friendless,  unedu- 
cated, penniless  boy,  working  on  a  flatboat  at  ten  dollars  per 
month)  have  been  put  down  here  as  the  candidate  of  pride, 
wealth,  and  aristocratic  family  distinction.  Yet  so,  chiefly,  it 
was.  There  was,  too,  the  strangest  combination  of  church  in- 
fluence against  me.  Baker  is  a  Campbellite;  and  therefore,  as 
I  suppose,  with  few  exceptions  got  all  that  church.  My  wife 
has  some  relations  in  the  Presbyterian  churches,  and  some  with 
the  Episcopal  churches;  and  therefore,  wherever  it  would  tell,  I 
was  set  down  as  either  the  one  or  the  other,  while  it  was  every- 
where contended  that  no  Christian  ought  to  go  for  me,  because 
I  belonged  to  no  church,  was  suspected  of  being  a  deist,  and 
had  talked  about  fighting  a  duel.  With  all  these  things,  Baker, 
of  course,  had  nothing  to  do.  Nor  do  I  complain  of  them. 
As  to  his  own  church  going  for  him,  I  think  that  was  right 
enough,  and  as  to  the  influences  I  have  spoken  of  in  the  other, 
though  they  were  very  strong,  it  would  be  grossly  untrue  and 
unjust  to  charge  that  they  acted  upon  them  in  a  body,  or  were 
very  near  so.  I  only  mean  that  those  influences  levied  a  tax 
of  a  considerable  per  cent  upon  my  strength  throughout  the 
religious  controversy.     But  enough  of  this. 

You  say  you  shall  instruct  your  delegates  for  me  unless  I 
object.  I  certainly  shall  not  object.  That  would  be  too  pleas- 
ant a  compliment  for  me  to  tread  in  the  dust.  And  besides,  if 
anything  should  happen  (which,  however,  is  not  probable)  by 
which  Baker  should  be  thrown  out  of  the  fight,  I  would  be  at 
liberty  to  accept  the  nomination  if  I  could  get  it.  I  do,  how- 
ever, feel  myself  bound  not  to  hinder  him  in  any  way  from 
getting  the  nomination.  I  should  despise  myself  were  I  to 
attempt  it.    I  think,  then,  it  would  be  proper  for  your  meeting 


52  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1843-45 

to  appoint  three  delegates  and  to  instruct  them  to  go  for  some 
one  as  a  first  choice,  some  one  else  as  a  second,  and  perhaps 
some  one  as  a  third;  and  if  in  those  instructions  I  were  named 
as  the  first  choice,  it  would  gratify  me  very  much. 

/.  /.  Hardin  receives  the  Whig  nomination,  to  the  chagrin 
both  of  Lincoln  and  Baker.  The  nominee  has  doubts  upon  the 
attitude  of  his  rivals. 

May  nth.  (To  Hardin.)  Butler  informs  me  that  he  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  you  in  which  you  expressed  some  doubt 
whether  the  Whigs  of  Sangamon  will  support  you  cordially. 
You  may,  at  once,  dismiss  all  fears  on  that  subject.  We  have 
already  resolved  to  make  a  particular  effort  to  give  you  the 
very  largest  majority  possible  in  our  county.  From  this,  no 
Whig  of  the  county  dissents.  We  have  many  objects  for  doing 
it.  We  make  it  a  matter  of  honor  and  pride  to  do  it ;  we  do  it 
because  we  love  the  Whig  cause ;  we  do  it  because  we  like  you 
personally ;  at  last  we  wish  to  convince  you  that  we  do  not  bear 
that  hatred  to  Morgan  county,  that  you  people  have  so  long 
seemed  to  imagine.  You  will  see  by  the  Journal  of  this  week, 
that  we  propose,  upon  pain  of  losing  a  Barbecue,  to  give  you 
twice  as  great  a  majority  in  this  county  as  you  shall  receive  in 
your  own.     I  got  up  the  proposal. 

1 8th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  In  relation  to  our  Congress 
matter  here,  you  wece  right  in  supposing  I  would  support  the 
nominee.  Neither  Baker  nor  I,  however,  is  the  man,  but 
Hardin.  We  shall  have  no  split  or  trouble  about  the  matter; 
all  will  be  harmony.  In  relation  to  the  "coming  events"  about 
which  Butler  wrote  you,  I  had  not  heard  one  word  before  I  got 
your  letter;  but  I  have  so  much  confidence  in  the  judgment  of 
a  Butler  on  such  a  subject  that  I  incline  to  think  there  may  be 
some  reality  in  it.  What  day  does  Butler  appoint?  By  the 
way,  how  do  "events"  of  the  same  sort  come  on  in  your  family? 


age  34-36]       AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  53 

Are  you  possessing  houses  and  lands,  and  oxen  and  asses,  and 
hieh-servants  and  maid-servants,  and  begetting  sons  and 
daughters?  We  are  not  keeping  house,  but  boarding  at  the 
Globe  Tavern,  which  is  very  well  kept  now  by  a  widow  lady  of 
the  name  of  Beck.  Our  room  (the  same  that  Doctor  Wallace 
occupied  there)  and  boarding  only  costs  us  four  dollars  a  week. 
Ann  Todd  was  married  something  more  than  a  year  since  to 
a  fellow  by  the  name  of  Campbell,  and  who,  Mary  says,  is 
pretty  much  of  a  "dunce,"  though  he  has  a  little  money  and 
property.  They  live  in  Boonville,  Missouri,  and  have  not  been 
heard  from  lately  enough  for  me  to  say  anything  about  her 
health.  I  reckon  it  will  scarcely  be  in  our  power  to  visit  Ken- 
tucky this  year.  Besides  poverty  and  the  necessity  of  attending 
to  business,  those  "coming  events,"  I  suspect,  would  be  some- 
what in  the  way.  I  most  heartily  wish  you  and  your  Fanny 
would  not  fail  to  come.  Just  let  us  know  the  time,  and  we  will 
have  a  room  provided  for  you  at  our  house,  and  all  be  merry 
together  for  a  while. 

September  20th.  Firm  of  Logan  and  Lincoln  dissolved; 
and  succeeded  immediately  by  the  firm  of  Lincoln  and  Hern- 
don.  The  correspondence  of  senior  member  of  the  new  firm  is 
often  entertaining. 

April  24th,  1844.  As  to  real  estate,  we  can  not  attend  to  it. 
We  are  not  real  estate  agents,  we  are  lawyers.  We  recommend 
that  you  give  the  charge  of  it  to  Mr.  Isaac  S.  Britton,  a  trust- 
worthy man  and  one  whom  the  Lord  made  on  purpose  for  such 
business. 

The  controversy  over  Texas  which  disturbs  the  whole  coun- 
try leads  Illinois  politicians  to  say  where  they  stand. 

October  3rd,  1845.  I  perhaps  ought  to  say  that  individu- 
ally I  never  was  much  interested  in  the  Texas  question.     I 


54  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1845-46 

never  could  see  much  good  to  come  of  annexation,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  already  a  free  republican  people  on  our  own  model. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  never  could  very  clearly  see  how  the 
annexation  would  augment  the  evil  of  slavery.  It  always  seemed 
to  me  that  slaves  would  be  taken  there  in  about  equal  numbers, 
with  or  without  annexation.  And  if  more  were  taken  because 
of  annexation,  still  there  would  be  just  so  many  the  fewer  left 
where  they  were  taken  from.  It  is  possibly  true,  to  some  ex- 
tent, that,  with  annexation,  some  slaves  may  be  sent  to  Texas 
and  continued  in  slavery  that  otherwise  might  have  been  liber- 
ated. To  whatever  extent  this  may  be  true,  I  think  annexation 
an  evil.  I  hold  it  to  be  a  paramount  duty  of  us  in  the  free 
States,  due  to  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  perhaps  to  liberty 
itself  (paradox  though  it  may  seem),  to  let  the  slavery  of  the 
other  States  alone;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  I  hold  it  to  be 
equally  clear  that  we  should  never  knowingly  lend  ourselves, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  prevent  that  slavery  from  dying  a 
natural  death — to  find  new  places  for  it  to  live  in,  when  it  can 
no  longer  exist  in  the  old.  Of  course  I  am  not  now  considering 
what  would  be  our  duty  in  cases  of  insurrection  among  the 
slaves. 

Lincoln's  friend  Baker  elected  to  Congress  to  succeed 
Hardin.  Lincoln  hopes  to  succeed  Baker  in  two  years'  time, 
but  is  disturbed  by  the  prompt  strategy  of  Hardin. 

November  ijth.  (To  B.  F.  James.)  The  paper  of  Pekin 
has  nominated  Hardin  for  governor;  and,  commenting  on 
this,  the  Alton  paper  indirectly  nominated  him  for  Congress 
(in  1847).  It  would  give  Hardin  a  great  start,  and  perhaps 
use  me  up,  if  the  Whig  papers  of  the  district  should  nominate 
him  for  Congress.  If  your  feelings  toward  me  are  the  same  as 
when  I  saw  you  (which  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt),  I  wish  you 
would  let  nothing  appear  in  your  paper  which  may  operate 


age  36-37]       AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  55 

against  me.  You  understand.  Matters  stand  just  as  they  did 
when  I  saw  you.  Baker  is  certainly  off  the  track  and  I  fear 
Hardin  intends  to  be  on  it  (a  second  time). 

1 8th.  Before  Baker  left  he  said  to  me,  in  accordance  with 
what  had  long  been  an  understanding  between  him  and  me,  that 
the  track  for  the  next  congressional  race  was  clear  to  me  so  far 
as  he  was  concerned;  and  that  he  would  say  so  publicly  in 
any  manner  and  at  any  time  I  might  desire.  I  said  in  reply,  as 
to  the  manner  and  time  I  would  consider  a  while  and  write  him. 

January  jih,  1846.  (To  Doctor  Robert  Boal.)  If  Hardin 
and  I  stood  precisely  equal,  if  neither  of  us  had  been  to  Con- 
gress, or,  if  we  both  had — it  would  not  only  accord  with  what 
I  have  always  done,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  give  way  to  him ; 
and  I  expect  I  should  do  it.  That  I  can  voluntarily  postpone 
my  pretentions,  when  they  are  no  more  than  equal  to  those  to 
which  they  are  postponed,  you  have  yourself  seen.  But  to 
yield  to  Hardin  under  present  circumstances,  seems  to  me  as 
nothing  else  than  yielding  to  one  who  would  gladly  sacrifice 
me  altogether.  This,  I  would  rather  not  submit  to.  That 
Hardin  is  talented,  energetic,  usually  generous  and  magnani- 
mous, I  have,  before  this,  affirmed  to  you,  and  do  not  now 
deny.  You  know  that  my  only  argument  is  that  "turn  about 
is  fair  play."    This  he  practically,  at  least,  denies. 

14th.  (To  B.  F.  James.)  I  should  be  pleased  if  I  could 
concur  with  you  in  the  hope  that  my  name  would  be  the  only 
one  presented  to  the  convention;  but  I  can  not.  Hardin  is  a 
man  of  desperate  energy  and  perseverance,  and  one  that  never 
backs  out;  and,  I  fear,  to  think  otherwise  is  to  be  deceived  in 
the  character  of  our  adversary.  I  would  rejoice  to  be  spared 
the  labor  of  a  contest ;  but  "being  in,"  I  shall  go  it  thoroughly, 
and  to  the  bottom. 

The  Beardstown  paper  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  my 
friends.  The  editor  is  a  Whig,  and  personally  dislikes  Hardin. 
When  the  supreme  court  shall  adjourn  (which  it  is  thought 


56  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1846 

will  be  about  the  15th  of  February),  it  is  my  intention  to  take 
a  quiet  trip  through  the  towns  and  neighborhoods  of  Logan 
County,  Delavan,  Tremont,  and  on  to  and  through  the  upper 
counties.  Don't  speak  of  this,  or  let  it  relax  any  of  your 
vigilance. 

15th.  (To  John  Bennett.)  Nathan  Dresser  is  here,  and 
speaks  as  though  the  contest  between  Hardin  and  me  is  to  be 
doubtful  in  Menard  County — I  know  he  is  candid  and  this 
alarms  me  some — I  asked  him  to  tell  me  the  names  of  the 
men  that  were  going  strong  for  Hardin;  he  said  Morris  was 
about  as  strong  as  any.  Now  tell  me,  is  Morris  going  it  openly  ? 
You  remember  you  wrote  me  that  he  would  be  neutral.  Nathan 
also  said  that  some  man  who  he  could  not  remember  said 
lately  that  Menard  County  was  going  to  decide  the  contest  and 
that  that  made  the  contest  very  doubtful.  Do  you  know  who 
that  was  ?  Don't  fail  to  write  me  instantly  on  receiving,  telling 
me  all — particularly  the  names  of  those  who  are  going  strong 
against  me. 

1 6th.  (To  B.  F.  James.)  A  plan  is  on  foot  to  change  the 
mode  of  selecting  the  candidate  for  this  district.  The  move- 
ment is  intended  to  injure  me,  and,  if  effected,  most  likely 
would  injure  me  to  some  extent.  I  have  not  time  to  give  par- 
ticulars now ;  but  I  want  you  to  let  nothing  prevent  your  getting 
an  article  in  your  paper  of  this  week,  taking  strong  ground  for 
the  old  system  under  which  Hardin  and  Baker  were  nominated 
without  seeming  to  know  or  suspect  that  any  one  desires  to 
change  it. 

2 1  st.  (To  Hardin,  declining  a  proposal  to  leave  the  nom- 
ination to  the  electors,  avoiding  a  convention.)  It  seems  to 
me  that  on  reflection  you  will  see  the  fact  of  your  having 
been  in  Congress  has,  in  various  ways,  so  spread  your  name  in 
the  district  as  to  give  you  a  decided  advantage  in  such  a  stipula- 
tion. I  appreciate  your  desire  to  keep  down  excitement ;  and  I 
promise  you  to  "keep  cool"  under  all  circumstances.    I  have  al- 


age  37]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  57 

ways  been  in  the  habit  of  acceding  to  almost  any  proposal  that  a 
friend  would  make  and  I  am  truly  sorry  that  I  can  not  in  this. 
I  perhaps  ought  to  mention  that  some  friends  at  different 
places  are  endeavoring  to  secure  the  honor  of  the  sitting  of  the 
convention  at  their  towns  respectively,  and  I  fear  that  they 
would  not  feel  much  complimented  if  we  shall  make  a  bargain 
that  it  should  sit  nowhere. 

2 1  st.  (To  N.  J.  Rockwell.)  You  perhaps  know  that  Gen- 
eral Hardin  and  I  have  a  contest  for  the  Whig  nomination  to 
Congress  for  this  district.  He  has  had  a  term  and  my  argu- 
ment is  "Turn  about  is  fair  play."  I  shall  be  pleased  if  this 
strikes  you  as  a  sufficient  argument. 

February  pth.  If  I  am  not,  in  what  I  have  done,  and  am 
able  to  do,  for  the  party,  near  enough  the  equal  of  General 
Hardin,  to  entitle  me  to  the  nomination,  I  scorn  it  on  any  and 
all  other  grounds. 

Nominated  for  Congress  after  Hardin  withdraws  from  the 
race. 

During  the  campaign — 

(As  he  is  leaving  a  revival  meeting  addressed  by  his  politi- 
cal opponent,  the  Reverend  Peter  Cartwright,  who  cries  out, 
"If  you  are  not  going  to  repent,  and  go  to  Heaven,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, where  are  you  going?") 

"I  am  going  to  Congress,  Brother  Cartwright." 

Politics,  though  his  paramount  interest  outside  his  profes- 
sion, do  not  wholly  engross  his  thoughts. 

April  1 8th.     (To  Johnston.)     Your  letter,  written 

some  six  weeks  since,  was  received  in  due  course,  and  also  the 
paper  with  the  parody.  It  is  true,  as  suggested  it  might  be, 
that  I  have  never  seen  Poe's  "Raven";  and  I  very  well  know 


58  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1846 

that  a  parody  is  almost  entirely  dependent  for  its  interest  upon 
the  reader's  acquaintance  with  the  original.  Still  there  is 
enough  in  The  Polecat,  self -considered,  to  afford  one  several 
hearty  laughs.  I  think  four  or  five  of  the  last  stanzas  are 
decidedly  funny,  particularly  where  Jeremiah  "scrubbed  and 
washed,  and  prayed  and  fasted." 

I  have  not  your  letter  now  before  me;  but,  from  memory, 
I  think  you  ask  me  who  is  the  author  of  the  piece  I  sent  you 
and  that  you  do  so  ask  as  to  indicate  a  slight  suspicion  that  I 
myself  am  the  author.  Beyond  all  question  I  am  not  the 
author.  I  would  give  all  I  am  worth,  and  go  in  debt,  to  be 
able  to  write  so  fine  a  piece  as  I  think  that  is.  Neither  do  I 
know  who  is  the  author.  I  met  it  in  a  straggling  form  in  a 
newspaper  last  summer  and  I  remember  to  have  seen  it  once 
before,  about  fifteen  years  ago,  and  this  is  all  I  know  about  it. 
The  piece  of  poetry  of  my  own  which  I  alluded  to,  I  was  led 
to  write  under  the  following  circumstances.  In  the  fall  of 
1844,  thinking  I  might  aid  some  to  carry  the  State  of  Indiana 
for  Mr.  Clay,  I  went  into  the  neighborhood  in  that  State  in 
which  I  was  raised,  where  my  mother  and  only  sister  were 
buried,  and  from  which  I  had  been  absent  about  fifteen  years. 
That  part  of  the  country  is,  within  itself,  as  unpoetical  as  any 
spot  of  the  earth;  but  still,  seeing  it  and  its  objects  and  inhabi- 
tants, aroused  feelings  in  me  which  were  certainly  poetry; 
though  whether  my  expression  of  those  feelings  is  poetry  is 
quite  another  question.  When  I  got  to  writing,  the  change 
of  subjects  divided  the  thing  into  four  little  divisions  or  cantos, 
the  first  only  of  which  I  send  you  now  and  may  send  the 
others  hereafter. 

My  childhood's  home  I  see  again, 

And  sadden  with  the  view ; 
And  still,  as  memory  crowds  my  brain, 

There's  pleasure  in  it  too. 


agb  37]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  59 

0  Memory  1  thou  midway  world 
'Twixt  earth  and  paradise, 

Where  things  decayed  and  loved  ones  lost 
In  dreamy  shadows  rise. 

And,  freed  from  all  that's  earthly  vile, 

Seem  hallowed,  pure,  and  bright, 
Like  scenes  in  some  enchanted  isle 

All  bathed  in  liquid  light.        * 

As  dusky  mountains  please  the  eye 

When  twilight  chases  day; 
As  bugle-notes  that,  passing  by, 

In  distance  die  away; 

As  leaving  some  grand  waterfall, 

We,  lingering,  list  its  roar — 
So  memory  will  hallow  all 

We've  known,  but  know  no  more. 

Near  twenty  years  have  passed  away 

Since  here  I  bid  farewell 
To  woods  and  fields,  and  scenes  of  play, 

And  playmates  loved  so  well. 

Where  many  were,  but  few  remain 

Of  old  familiar  things; 
But  seeing  them,  to  mind  again 

The  lost  and  absent  brings. 

The  friends  I  left  that  parting  day, 

How  changed,  as  time  has  sped ! 
Young  childhood  grown,  strong  manhood  gray, 

And  half  of  all  are  dead. 

1  hear  the  loved  survivors  tell 

How  nought  from  death  could  save, 
Till  every  sound  appears  a  knell, 
And  every  spot  a  grave. 

I  range  the  fields  with  pensive  tread, 

And  pace  the  hollow  rooms, 
And  feel  (companion  of  the  dead) 

I'm  living  in  the  tombs, 


60  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1847 

The  quarrel  over  the  Whig  nomination  has  been  very  bit- 
ter.   Lincoln  seeks  to  restore  harmony. 

26th.  (To  James  Berdan.)  I  thank  you  for  the  prompt- 
ness with  which  you  answered  my  letter  from  Bloomington.  I 
also  thank  you  for  the  frankness  with  which  you  comment 
upon  a  certain  part  of  my  letter;  because  that  comment  affords 
me  an  opportunity  of  trying  to  express  myself  better  than  I  did 
before,  seeing,  as  I  do,  that  in  that  part  of  my  letter  you  have 
not  understood  me  as  I  intended  to  be  understood.  In  speak- 
ing of  the  "dissatisfaction"  of  men  who  yet  mean  to  do  no 
wrong,  &c,  I  meant  no  special  application  of  what  I  said  to 
the  Whigs  of  Morgan,  or  of  Morgan  &  Scott.  I  only  had  in 
my  mind  the  fact,  that  previous  to  General  Hardin's  withdrawal 
some  of  his  friends  and  some  of  mine  had  become  a  little 
warm ;  and  I  felt,  and  meant  to  say,  that  for  them  now  to  meet 
face  to  face  and  converse  together  was  the  best  way  to  efface 
any  remnant  of  unpleasant  feeling,  if  any  such  existed.  I  did 
not  suppose  that  General  Hardin's  friends  were  in  any  greater 
need  of  having  their  feelings  corrected  than  mine  were. 

May  /th.  It  is  a  matter  of  high  moral  obligation,  if  not  of 
necessity,  for  me  to  attend  the  Coles  and  Edgar  courts.  I 
have  some  cases  in  both  of  them  in  which  the  parties  have  my 
promise  and  are  depending  upon  me. 

August.  Elected  to  Congress,  for  the  session  beginning 
December,  1847. 

May  12,  184/.  Outbreak  of  the  Mexican  War.  All  the 
Whigs,  Lincoln  not  excepted,  take  a  relatively  non-committal 
attitude  toward  this  Democratic  project. 

June.  All  those  who,  because  of  knowing  too  little,  or 
because  of  knowing  too  much,  can  not  conscientiously  oppose. 


agb38]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  61 

the  conduct  of  the  President  [Polk]  in  beginning  [the  war], 
should  nevertheless  as  good  citizens  and  good  patriots,  remain 
silent  on  that  point,  at  least  until  the  war  is  ended.* 

October  22nd.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  You,  no  doubt, 
assign  the  suspension  of  our  correspondence  to  the  true  phil- 
osophic cause ;  though  it  must  be  confessed  by  both  of  us  that 
this  is  rather  a  cold  reason  for  allowing  a  friendship  such  as 
ours  to  die  out  by  degrees.  I  propose  now,  that  upon  receipt 
of  this  you  shall  be  considered  in  my  debt  and  under  obligations 
to  pay  soon,  and  that  neither  shall  remain  long  in  arrears 
hereafter.     Are  you  agreed? 

Being  elected  to  Congress,  though  I  am  very  grateful  to 
our  friends  for  having  done  it,  has  not  pleased  me  as  much  as 
I  expected. 

We  have  another  boy,  born  the  10th  of  March.  He  is  very 
much  such  a  child  as  Bob  was  at  his  age,  rather  of  a  longer 
order.  Bob  is  "short  and  low/'  and  I  expect  always  will  be. 
He  talks  very  plainly — almost  as  plainly  as  anybody.  He  is 
quite  smart  enough.  I  sometimes  fear  that  he  is  one  of  the 
little  rare-ripe  sort  that  are  smarter  at  about  five  than  ever 
after.  He  has  a  great  deal  of  that  sort  of  mischief  that  is  the 
offspring  of  such  animal  spirits.  Since  I  began  this  letter,  a 
messenger  came  to  tell  me  Bob  was  lost;  but  by  the  time  I 
reached  the  house  his  mother  had  found  him  and  had  him 
whipped,  and  by  now,  very  likely,  he  is  run  away  again.  Mary 
has  read  your  letter  and  wishes  to  be  remembered  to  Mrs.  Speed 
and  you,  in  which  I  most  sincerely  join  her. 

November.    Leaves  Springfield  for  Washington. 

December  5th,  Washington. 

(To  William  H.  Herndon.)  You  may  remember  that 
about  a  year  ago  a  man  by  the  name  of  Wilson  (James  Wilson, 

*See  pp.  67-69. 


62  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1847 

I  think)  paid  us  twenty  dollars  as  an  advance  fee  to  attend  to 
a  case  in  the  Supreme  Court  for  him,  against  a  Mr.  Campbell, 
the  record  of  which  case  was  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Dixon  of  St. 
Louis,  who  never  furnished  it  to  us.  When  I  was  at  Bloom- 
ington  last  fall,  I  met  a  friend  of  Wilson,  who  mentioned  the 
subject  to  me  and  induced  me  to  write  to  Wilson,  telling  him 
I  would  leave  the  ten  dollars  with  you  which  had  been  left 
with  me  to  pay  for  making  abstracts  in  the  case  so  that  the  case 
may  go  on  this  winter ;  but  I  came  away,  and  forgot  to  do  it. 
What  I  want  now  is  to  send  you  the  money  to  be  used  accord- 
ingly, if  any  one  comes  on  to  start  the  case,  or  to  be  retained 
by  you  if  no  one  does. 

13th.  (To  William  H.  Herndon.)  Your  letter  advising 
me  of  the  receipt  of  our  fee  in  the  bank-case,  is  just  received, 
and  I  don't  expect  to  hear  another  as  good  piece  of  news  from 
Springfield  while  I  am  away.  I  am  under  no  obligations  to  the 
bank ;  and  I  therefore  wish  you  to  buy  bank  certificates  and  pay 
my  debt  there,  so  as  to  pay  it  with  the  least  money  possible.  I 
would  as  soon  you  should  buy  them  of  Mr.  Ridgely,  or  any 
other  person  at  the  bank,  as  of  any  one  else,  provided  you  can 
get  them  as  cheaply.  I  suppose  after  the  bank  debt  shall  be 
paid,  there  will  be  some  money  left  out  of  which  I  would  like 
to  have  you  pay  Lavely  and  Stout  twenty  dollars,  and  Priest 
and  somebody  (oil-makers)  ten  dollars,  for  materials  got  for 
house-painting.  If  there  shall  still  be  any  left,  keep  it  till  you 
see  or  hear  from  me. 

The  Whigs  are  badgering  the  President  for  bringing  on  the 
war  though  they  do  not  quite  dare  to  refuse  to  support  it.  Lin- 
coln introduces  his  famous  ((Spot  Resolutions" 

22nd.  (Resolutions  introduced  into  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives.) Whereas,  The  President  of  the  United  States, 
in  his  message  of  May  1 1,  1846,  has  declared  that  "the  Mexican 


age  38]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  6 


o 


Government  not  only  refused  to  receive  him  (the  envoy  of  the 
United  States),  or  to  listen  to  his  propositions,  but,  after  a 
long-continued  series  of  menaces,  has  at  last  invaded  our  terri- 
tory and  shed  the  blood  of  our  fellow-citizens  on  our  own  soil. 

Resolved,  By  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  be  respectfully  requested  to  inform 
this  House, — 

ist.  Whether  the  spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our  citizens 
was  shed,  as  in  his  message  declared,  was  or  was  not  within 
the  territory  of  Spain,  at  least  after  the  treaty  of  1819,  until 
the  Mexican  revolution. 

2d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  the  territory 
which  was  wrested  from  Spain  by  the  revolutionary  govern- 
ment of  Mexico. 

3d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  a  settlement  of 
people,  which  settlement  has  existed  ever  since  long  before  the 
Texas  revolution,  and  until  its  inhabitants  fled  before  the  ap- 
proach of  the  United  States  army. 

4th.  Whether  that  settlement  is  or  is  not  isolated  from 
any  and  all  other  settlements  by  the  Gulf  and  the  Rio  Grande 
on  the  south  and  west,  and  by  wide  uninhabited  regions  on  the 
north  and  east. 

5th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement,  or  a  majority 
of  them,  or  any  of  them,  have  ever  submitted  themselves  to 
the  government  or  laws  of  Texas  or  of  the  United  States,  by 
consent  or  by  compulsion,  either  by  accepting  office,  or  voting 
at  elections,  or  paying  tax,  or  serving  on  juries,  or  having 
process  served  upon  them,  or  in  any  other  way. 

6th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement  did  or  did  not 
flee  from  the  approach  of  the  United  States  army,  leaving 
unprotected  their  homes  and  their  growing  crops,  before  the 
blood  was  shed,  as  in  the  message  stated ;  and  whether  the  first 
blood,  so  shed,  was  or  was  not  shed  within  the  inclosure  of 
one  of  the  people  who  had  thus  fled  from  it. 


64  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1847 

7th.  Whether  our  citizens,  whose  blood  was  shed,  as  in  his 
message  declared,  were  or  were  not,  at  that  time,  armed  officers 
and  soldiers,  sent  into  that  settlement  by  the  military  order  of 
the  President,  through  the  Secretary  of  War. 

8th.  Whether  the  military  force  of  the  United  States  was 
or  was  not  so  sent  into  that  settlement  after  General  Taylor 
had  more  than  once  intimated  to  the  War  Department,  that,  in 
his  opinion,  no  such  movement  was  necessary  to  the  defense  or 
protection  of  Texas. 


1848 

January  1st.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  diversity  among  the 
Whigs,  as  to  who  shall  be  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
but  I  think  it  will  result  in  favor  of  General  Taylor. 

As  to  Mr.  Graham's  application  for  a  Lieutenancy,  I  have 
already  submitted  it  to  the  President  in  the  best  way  I  could 
think  of  to  give  it  chance  of  success.  I  wrote  him  about  it; 
and  do  not  know  anything  more  that  I  can  do  for  him.  I  can 
have  no  intimacy  with  the  President,  which  might  give  me 
personal  influence  over  him. 

Lincoln  begins  to  learn  the  ways  of  Congress  which  has 
formalities  that  are  nczv  to  him. 

$th.  (From  the  Congressional  Globe.)  Mr.  Lincoln  said 
he  had  made  an  effort,  some  few  days  since,  to  obtain  the  floor 
in  relation  to  this  measure  (resolution  requiring  the  Postmaster 
General  to  make  new  arrangement  for  carrying  the  mails),  but 
had  failed.  One  of  the  objects  he  had  then  had  in  view  was 
now  in  a  great  measure  superseded  by  what  had  fallen  from  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia  who  had  just  taken  his  seat.  He 
begged  to  assure  his  friends  on  the  other  side  of  the  House 
that  no1  assault  whatever  was  meant  upon  the  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral; and  he  was  glad  that  what  the  gentleman  had  now  said, 
modified  to  a  great  extent  by  the  impression  which  might  have 
been  created  by  the  language  he  had  used  on  a  previous  occa- 
sion. He  wanted  to  state  to  gentlemen  who  might  have  en- 
tertained such  impressions,  that  the  Committee  on  the  Post 
Office  was  composed  of  five  Whigs  and  four  Democrats,  and 

65 


66  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [i848 

their  report  was  understood  as  sustaining,  not  impugning,  the 
position  taken  by  the  Postmaster  General.  That  report  had 
met  with  the  approbation  of  all  the  Whigs  and  of  all  the 
Democrats  also,  with  the  exception  of  one,  and  he  wanted  to 
go  even  further  than  this.  (Intimation  was  informally  given 
Mr.  L.  that  it  was  not  in  order  to  mention  on  the  floor  what 
had  taken  place  in  committee.)  He  then  observed  that  if  he 
had  been  out  of  order  in  what  he  had  said,  he  took  it  all  back 
so  far  as  he  could.  He  had  no  desire,  he  could  assure  gentle- 
men, ever  to  be  out  of  order — though  he  never  could  keep  long 
in  order. 

8th.  (To  William  H.  Herndon.)  As  to  speech-making, 
by  way  of  getting  the  hang  of  the  House  I  made  a  little  speech 
two  or  three  days  ago  on  a  post-office  question  of  no  general 
interest.  I  find  speaking  here  and  elsewhere  about  the  same 
thing.  I  was  about  as  badly  scared,  and  no  worse,  as  I  am 
when  I  speak  in  court.  I  expect  to  make  one  within  a  week  or 
two  in  which  I  hope  to  succeed  well  enough  to  wish  you  to 
see  it. 

It  is  very  pleasant  to  learn  from  you  that  there  are  some 
who  desire  that  I  should  be  reelected.  I  most  heartily  thank 
them  for  their  kind  partiality ;  and  I  can  say,  as  Mr.  Clay  said 
of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  that  "personally  I  would  not  ob- 
ject'' to  a  reelection,  although  I  thought  at  the  time,  and  still 
think,  it  would  be  quite  as  well  for  me  to  return  to  the  law  at 
the  end  of  a  single  term.  I  made  the  declaration  that  I  would 
not  be  a  candidate  again,  more  from  a  wish  to  deal  fairly  with 
others,  to  keep  peace  among  our  friends  and  to  keep  the  district 
from  going  to  the  enemy,  than  for  any  cause  personal  to  my- 
self;  so  that,  if  it  should  so  happen  that  nobody  else  wishes  to 
be  elected,  I  could  not  refuse  the  people  the  right  of  sending  me 
again.  But  to  enter  myself  as  a  competitor  of  others,  or  to 
authorize  any  one  so  to  enter  ine,  is  what  my  word  and  honor 
forbid. 


age  38]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  67 

After  a  year  in  Congress  Lincoln  tries  his  hand  formulat- 
ing the  Whig  doctrine  that  the  President  is  a  rascal  but  the 
war  must  be  carried  through. 

12th.  (In  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives.) 
Mr.  Chairman:  Some,  if  not  all,  the  gentlemen  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House  who  have  addressed  the  committee  within 
the  last  two  days,  have  spoken  rather  complainingly,  if  I  have 
rightly  understood  them,  of  the  vote  given  a  week  or  ten  days 
ago  declaring  that  the  war  with  Mexico  was  unnecessarily  and 
unconstitutionally  commenced  by  the  President.  I  admit  that 
such  a  vote  should  not  be  given  in  mere  party  wantonness,  and 
that  the  one  given  is  justly  censurable,  if  it  have  no  other  or 
better  foundation.  I  am  one  of  those  who  joined  in  that  vote; 
and  I  did  so  under  my  best  impression  of  the  truth  of  the  case. 
How  I  got  this  impression,  and  how  it  may  possibly  be  reme- 
died, I  will  now  try  to  show.  When  the  war  began,  it  was  my 
opinion  that  all  those  who  because  of  knowing  too  little,  or 
because  of  knowing  too  much,  could  not  conscientiously  oppose 
the  conduct  of  the  President  (in  the  beginning  of  it),  should, 
nevertheless,  as  good  citizens  and  patriots,  remain  silent  on 
that  point,  at  least  till  the  war  should  be  ended.  Some  leading 
Democrats,  including  ex-President  Van  Buren,  have  taken  this 
same  view,  as  I  understand  them ;  and  I  adhered  to  it  and  acted 
upon  it,  until  since  I  took  my  seat  here ;  and  I  think  I  should 
still  adhere  to  it  were  it  not  that  the  President  and  his  friends 
will  not  allow  it  to  be  so.  Besides  the  continual  effort  of  the 
President  to  argue  every  silent  vote  given  for  supplies  into  an 
indorsement  of  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  his  conduct;  besides 
that  singularly  candid  paragraph  in  his  late  message  in  which 
he  tells  us  that  Congress  with  great  unanimity  (only  two  in 
the  Senate  and  fourteen  in  the  House  dissenting),  had  declared 
that  "by  the  act  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  a  state  of  war 
exists  between  that  Government  and  the  United  States/'  when 


68  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

the  same  journals  that  informed  him  of  this  also  informed  him 
that  when  that  declaration  stood  disconnected  from  the  ques- 
tion of  supplies  sixty-seven  in  the  House,  and  not  fourteen 
merely,  voted  against  it;  besides  this  open  contempt  to  prove 
by  telling  the  truth  what  he  could  not  prove  by  telling  the  whole 
truth,  demanding  of  all  who  will  not  submit  to  be  misrepre- 
sented, in  justice  to  themselves,  to  speak  out,  besides  all  this, 
one  of  my  colleagues  (Mr.  Richardson),  at  a  very  early  day  in 
the  session  brought  in  a  set  of  resolutions  expressly  indorsing 
the  original  justice  of  the  war  on  the  part  of  the  President. 
Upon  these  resolutions  when  they  shall  be  put  on  their  pas- 
sage I  shall  be  compelled  to  vote;  so  that  I  can  not  be  silent  if 
I  would. 

As  to  the  country  now  in  question,  we  bought  it  of  France 
in  1803,  and  sold  it  to  Spain  in  1819,  according  to  the  Presi- 
dent's statements.  After  this,  all  Mexico,  including  Texas, 
revolutionized  against  Spain;  still  later  Texas  revolutionized 
against  Mexico.  In  my  view,  just  so  far  as  she  carried  her 
resolution  by  obtaining  the  actual,  willing  or  unwilling,  sub- 
mission of  the  people,  so  far  the  country  was  hers,  and  no 
farther. 

Now,  sir,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  very  best  evi- 
dence as  to  whether  Texas  had  actually  carried  her  revolution 
to  the  place  where  the  hostilities  of  the  present  war  commenced, 
let  the  President  answer  the  interrogatories  I  proposed,  as 
before  mentioned,  or  some  other  similar  ones.  Let  him 
answer  fully,  fairly,  and  candidly.  Let  him  answer  with  facts 
and  not  with  arguments.  Let  him  remember  he  sits  where 
Washington  sat;  and,  so  remembering,  let  him  answer  as 
Washington  would  answer.  As  a  nation  should  not,  and  the 
Almighty  will  not,  be  evaded,  so  let  him  attempt  no  evasion, 
no  equivocation.  And  if,  so  answering,  he  can  show  that  the 
soil  was  ours  where  the  first  blood  of  the  war  was  shed;  that 
it  was  not  within  an  inhabited  country,  or,  if  within  such, 


age  38]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  69 

that  the  inhabitants  had  submitted  themselves  to  the  civil 
authority  of  Texas  or  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  same 
is  true  of  the  site  of  Fort  Brown— then  I  am  with  him  for  his 
justification.  In  that  case  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  reverse 
the  vote  I  gave  the  other  day. 

February  1st.  (To  William  H.  Herndon.)  Your  letter 
of  the  19th  ult.  was  received  last  night,  and  for  which  I  am 
much  obliged.  The  only  thing  in  it  that  I  wish  to  talk  to  you 
about  at  once  is,  that  because  of  my  vote  for  Ashmun's  amend- 
ment you  fear  that  you  and  I  disagree  about  the  war.  I  regret 
this,  not  because  of  any  fear  we  shall  remain  disagreed  after 
you  have  read  this  letter,  but  because  if  you  misunderstand  I 
fear  other  good  friends  may  also.  That  vote  affirms  that  the 
war  was  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  commenced  by 
the  President;  and  I  will  stake  my  life  that  if  you  had  been  in 
my  place  you  would  have  voted  just  as  I  did.  Would  you 
have  voted  what  you  felt  and  knew  to  be  a  lie?  I  know  you 
would  not.  Would  you  have  gone  out  of  the  House — skulked 
the  vote?  I  expect  not.  If  you  had  skulked  one  vote  you 
would  have  had  to  skulk  many  more  before  the  end  of  the 
session.  Richardson's  resolutions,  introduced  before  I  made 
any  move  or  gave  any  vote  upon  the  subject,  make  the  direct 
question  of  the  justice  of  the  war;  so  that  no  man  can  be  silent 
if  he  would.  You  are  compelled  to  speak;  and  your  only  al- 
ternative is  to  tell  the  truth  or  a  lie.  I  can  not  doubt  which 
you  would  do. 

This  vote  has  nothing  to  do  in  determining  my  votes  on 
the  question  of  supplies.  I  have  always  intended,  and  still 
intend,  to  vote  supplies :  perhaps  not  in  the  precise  form  recom- 
mended by  the  President,  but  in  a  better  form  for  all  purposes, 
except  Locofoco  party  purposes.  It  is  in  this  particular  you 
seem  mistaken.  The  Locos  are  untiring  in  their  efforts  to 
make  the  impression  that  all  who  vote  supplies  or  take  part  in 
the  war  do  of  necessity  approve  the  President's  conduct  in  the 


jo  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

beginning  of  it;  but  the  Whigs  have  from  the  beginning  made 
and  kept  the  distinction  between  the  two.  In  the  very  first 
act  nearly  all  the  Whigs  voted  against  the  preamble  declaring 
that  war  existed  by  the  act  of  Mexico;  and  yet  nearly  all  of 
them  voted  for  the  supplies.  I  do  not, mean  this  letter  for  the 
public,  but  for  you.  Before  it  reaches  you,  you  will  have  seen 
and  read  my  pamphlet  speech,  and,  perhaps,  been  scared  anew 
by  it.  After  you  get  over  your  scare,  read  it  over  again,  sen- 
tence by  sentence,  and  tell  me  honestly  what  you  think  of  it.  I 
condensed  all  I  could  for  fear  of  being  cut  off  by  the  hour 
rule;  and  when  I  got  through,  I  had  spoken  but  forty- five 
minutes. 

2nd.  I  just  take  my  pen  to  say  that  Mr.  Stephens,  of 
Georgia,  a  little,  slim,  pale-faced,  consumptive  man,  with  a 
voice  like  Logan's,  has  just  concluded  the  very  best  speech  of 
an  hour's  length  I  ever  heard.  My  old,  withered,  dry  eyes  are 
full  of  tears  yet. 

4th.  There  now  is  some  probability  of  peace,  but  should 
the  war  go  on,  I  think  volunteers  with  the  right  of  electing 
their  own  officers  will  be  voted,  but  that  no  more  regulars  will 
be  voted. 

15th.  (To  William  H.  Herndon.)  Your  letter  of  the 
29th  of  January  was  received  last  night.  Being  exclusively  a 
constitutional  argument,  I  wish  to  submit  some  reflections 
upon  it  in  the  same  spirit  of  kindness  that  I  know  actuates  you. 
Let  me  first  state  what  I  understand  to  be  your  position. 
It  is  that  if  it  shall  become  necessary  to  repel  invasion,  the 
President  may,  without  violation  of  the  Constitution,  cross  the 
line,  and  invade  the  territory  of  another  country;  and  that 
whether  such  necessity  exists  in  any  given  case  the  President 
is  the  sole  judge. 

Before  going  further,  consider  well  whether  this  is  or  is 
not  your  position.  If  it  is,  it  is  a  position  that  neither  the 
President  himself,  nor  any  friend  of  his,  so  far  as  I  know,  has 


age  38-39]        AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  71 

ever  taken.  Their  only  positions  are,  first,  that  the  soil  was 
ours  when  the  hostilities  commenced ;  and  second,  that  whether 
it  was  rightfully  ours  or  not,  Congress  had  annexed  it,  and 
the  President  for  that  reason  was  bound  to  defend  it;  both  of 
which  are  as  clearly  proved  to  be  false  in  fact  as  you  can  prove 
that  your  house  is  mine.  The  soil  was  not  ours,  and  Congress 
did  not  annex  or  attempt  to  annex  it.  But  to  return  to  your 
position.  Allow  the  President  to  invade  a  neighboring  nation 
whenever  he  shall  deem  it  necessary  to  repel  an  invasion,  and 
you  allow  him  to  do  so  whenever  he  may  choose  to  say  he 
deems  it  necessary  for  such  purposes,  and  you  allow  him  to 
make  war  at  pleasure.  Study  to  see  if  you  can  fix  any  limit 
to  his  power  in  this  respect  after  having  given  him  so  much  as 
you  propose.  If  to-day  he  should  choose  to  say  he  thinks  it 
necessary  to  invade  Canada  to  prevent  the  British  from  invad- 
ing us,  how  could  you  stop  him?  You  may  say  to  him,  "I  see 
no  probability  of  the  British  invading  us";  but  he  will  say  to 
you,  "Be  silent;  I  see  it,  if  you  don't. " 

The  provision  of  the  Constitution  giving  the  war-making 
power  to  Congress  was  dictated,  as  I  understand  it,  by  the 
following  reasons:  kings  had  always  been  involving  and  im- 
poverishing their  people  in  wars,  pretending  generally,  if  not 
always,  that  the  good  of  the  people  was  the  object.  This  our 
convention  understood  to  be  the  most  oppressive  of  all  kingly 
oppressions,  and  they  resolved  to  so  frame  the  Constitution 
that  no  one  man  should  hold  the  power  of  bringing  this  oppres- 
sion upon  us.  But  your  view  destroys  the  whole  matter  and 
places  our  President  where  kings  have  always  stood.  Write 
soon  again. 

In  the  midst  of  eloquence  over  foreign  policy  shrewd 
schemes  for  the  next  election  are  not  forgotten. 

30th.  (To  Archibald  Williams.)  I  have  not  seen  in  the 
papers  any  evidence  of  a  movement  to  send  a  delegate  from 


yz  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

your  circuit  to  the  June  convention.  I  wish  to  say  that  I  think 
it  all-important  that  a  delegate  should  be  sent.  Mr.  Clay's 
chance  for  an  election  is  just  no  chance  at  all.  He  might  get 
New  York,  and  that  would  have  elected  in  1844,  but  it  will 
not  now,  because  he  must  now,  at  the  least,  lose  Tennessee, 
which  he  had  then  and  in  addition  the  fifteen  new  votes  of 
Florida,  Texas,  Iowa  and  Wisconsin.  I  know  our  good  friend 
Browning  is  a  great  admirer  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  I  therefore  fear 
he  is  favoring  his  nomination.  If  he  is,  I  ask  him  to  discard 
feeling,  and  try  if  he  can  possibly,  as  a  matter  of  judgment, 
count  the  votes  necessary  to  elect  him. 

In  my  judgment  we  can  elect  nobody  but  General  Taylor ; 
and  we  can  not  elect  him  without  a  nomination.  Therefore 
don't  fail  to  send  a  delegate. 

Taylor  is  nominated  by  the  Whigs. 

June  12th.  (To  Archibald  Williams.)  On  my  return 
from  Philadelphia,  where  I  had  been  attending  the  nomination 
of  "Old  Rough"  [Taylor]  I  found  your  letter  in  a  mass  of 
others  which  had  accumulated  in  my  absence.  By  many,  and 
often,  it  had  been  said  they  would  not  abide  the  nomination  of 
Taylor ;  but,  since  the  deed  has  been  done,  they  are  fast  falling 
in,  and  in  my  opinion  we  shall  have  a  most  overwhelming, 
glorious  triumph.  One  unmistakable  sign  is  that  all  the  odds 
and  ends  are  with  us — Barnburners,  Native  Americans,  Tyler 
men,  disappointed  office-seeking  Locofocos,  and  the  Lord 
knows  what.  This  is  important,  if  in  nothing  else,  in  showing 
which  way  the  wind  blows. 

22nd.  (To  William  H.  Herndon.)  Last  night  I  was  at- 
tending a  sort  of  caucus  of  the  Whig  members  held  in  relation 
to  the  coming  Presidential  election.  The  whole  field  of  the 
nation  was  scanned;  and  all  is  high  hope  and  confidence. 

You  young  men  get  together  and  form  a  Rough  and  Ready 


age  39]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  73 

Club,  and  have  regular  meetings  and  speeches.  Take  in  every- 
body you  can  get.  Harrison,  Grimsley,  L.  A.  Enos.  See 
Kimball  and  C.  W.  Matheny  will  do  to  begin  the  thing;  but 
as  you  go  along  gather  up  all  the  shrewd,  wild  boys  about 
town,  whether  just  of  age  or  a  little  under  age — Chris.  Logan, 
Reddick  Ridgdey,  Lewis  Zurzler,  and  hundreds  such.  Let 
every  one  play  the  part  he  can  play  best — some  speak,  some 
sing,  and  all  "holler."  Your  meetings  will  be  of  evenings;  and 
older  men,  and  the  women,  will  go  to  hear  you ;  so  that  it 
will  not  only  contribute  to  the  election  of  "Old  Zack,"  but  will 
be  an  interesting  pastime  and  improving  to  the  intellectual 
faculties  of  all  engaged.     Don't  fail  to  do  this. 

You  ask  me  to  send  you  all  the  speeches  made  about  "Old 
Zack,1'  the  war,  etc.,  etc.  Now  this  makes  me  a  little  impatient. 
I  have  regularly  sent  you  the  Congressional  Globe  and  "Appen- 
dix," and  you  can  not  have  examined  them,  or  you  would  have 
discovered  that  they  contain  every  speech  made  by  every  man 
in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  on  every  subject,  during  the 
session. 

Lincoln  drazvs  tip  his  views  as  to  how  Taylor  ought  to  deal 
with  the  subjects  of  the  hour. 

July  1st.  The  question  of  a  national  bank  is  at  rest.  Were 
I  President,  I  should  not  urge  its  reagitation  upon  Congress; 
but  should  Congress  see  fit  to  pass  an  act  to  establish  such  an 
institution,  I  should  not  arrest  it  by  the  veto,  unless  I  should 
consider  it  subject  to  some  constitutional  objection  from  which 
I  believe  the  two  former  banks  to  have  been  free. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  national  debt  created  by  the  war 
renders  a  modification  of  the  existing  tariff  indispensable ;  and 
when  it  shall  be  modified  I  should  be  pleased  to  see  it  adjusted 
with  a  due  reference  to  the  protection  of  our  home  industry. 
The  particulars,  it  appears  to  me,  must  and  should  be  left  to 
the  untrammeled  discretion  of  Congress. 


74  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

At  Springfield  the  younger  Whigs  are  not  altogether  satis- 
fied with  their  leader. 

2nd:  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  My  dear  wife:  Your  letter  of 
last  Sunday  came  last  night —  On  that  day  (Sunday)  I  wrote 
the  principal  part  of  a  letter  to  you,  but  did  not  finish  it,  or 
send  it  till  Tuesday,  when  I  had  provided  a  draft  for  $100 
which  I  sent  in  it —  It  is  now  probable  that  on  that  day 
(Tuesday)  you  started  to  Shelby ville;  so  that  when  the 
money  reaches  Lexington,  you  will  not  be  there —  Before 
leaving,  did  you  make  any  provision  about  letters  that  might 
come  to  Lexington  for  you?  Write  me  whether  you  got  the 
draft,  if  you  shall  not  have  already  done  so,  when  this 
reaches  you —  Give  my  kindest  regards  to  your  uncle  John, 
and  all  the  family — ■  Thinking  of  them  reminds  me  that  I 
saw  your  acquaintance,  Newton,  of  Arkansas,  at  the  Phila- 
delphia Convention —  We  had  but  a  single  interview,  and 
that  was  so  brief,  and  in  so  great  a  multitude  of  strange  faces, 
that  I  am  quite  sure  I  should  not  recognize  him,  if  I  were  to 
meet  him  again — -  He  was  a  sort  of  Trinity,  three  in  one, 
having  the  right,  in  his  own  person,  to  cast  the  three  votes  of 
Arkansas —  Two  or  three  days  ago  I  sent  your  uncle  John, 
and  a  few  of  our  other  friends  each  a  copy  of  the  speech  I 
mentioned  in  my  last  letter;  but  I  did  not  send  any  to  you, 
thinking  you  would  be  on  the  road  here,  before  it  would 
reach  you —  I  send  you  one  now —  Last  Wednesday,  P.  H. 
Hood  &  Co.  dunned  me  for  a  little  bill  of  $5 — 50  cents,  for 
goods  which  they  say  you  bought —  I  hesitated  to  pay  them, 
because  my  recollection  is  that  you  told  me  when  you  went 
away,  that  there  was  nothing  left  unpaid —  Mention  in  your 
next  letter  whether  they  are  right — 

Mrs.  Richardson  is  still  here ;  and  what  is  more,  has  a 
baby — so  Richardson  says,  and  he  ought  to  know —  I 
believe  Mary  Hewett  has  left  here  and  gone  to  Boston —     I 


age  39]  AN,    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  75 

met  her  on  the  street  about  fifteen  or  twenty  days  ago,  and 
she  told  me  she  was  going  soon —  I  have  seen  nothing  of 
her  since — 

The  music  in  the  Capitol  grounds  on  Saturdays,  or,  rather, 
the  interest  in  it,  is  dwindling  down  to  nothing —  Yesterday 
evening  the  attendance  was  rather  thin —  Our  two  girls, 
whom  you  remember  seeing  first  at  Canisis,  at  the  exhibition 
of  the  Ethiopian  Serenaders,  and  whose  peculiarities  were  the 
wearing  of  black  fur  bonnets,  and  never  being  seen  in  close 
company  with  other  ladies,  were  at  the  music  yesterday —  One 
of  them  was  attended  by  their  brother,  and  the  other  had  a 
member  of  Congress  in  tow —  He  went  home  with  her;  and 
if  I  were  to  guess,  I  would  say,  he  went  away  a  somewhat 
altered  man — most  likely  in  his  pockets,  and  in  some  other 
particular —  The  fellow  looked  conscious  of  guilt,  although 
I  believe  he  was  unconscious  that  everybody  around  knew 
who  it  was  that  had  caught  him — 

I  have  had  no  letter  from  home,  since  I  wrote  you  before, 
except  short  business  letters,  which  have  no  interest  for  you — 

By  the  way,  you  do  not  intend  to  do  without  a  girl,  be- 
cause the  one  you  had  has  left  you?  Get  another  as  soon  as 
you  can  to  take  charge  of  the  dear  codgers —  Father  ex- 
pected to  see  you  all  sooner;  but  let  it  pass;  stay  as  long  as 
you  please,  and  come  when  you  please —  Kiss  and  love  the 
dear   rascals —     Affectionately  A.    Lincoln 

10th.  (To  Herndon.)  The  subject  of  [your]  letter  is 
exceedingly  painful  to  me;  and  I  can  not  but  think  there  is 
some  mistake  in  your  impression  of  the  motives  of  the  old  men. 
I  suppose  I  am  now  one  of  the  old  men ;  and  I  declare,  on  my 
veracity,  which  I  trfink  is  good  with  you,  that  nothing  could 
afford  me  more  satisfaction  than  to  learn  that  you  and  others 
of  my  young  friends  at  home  are  doing  battle  in  the  contest 
and  endearing  themselves  to  the  people  and  taking  a  stand  far 
above  any  I  have  ever  been  able  to  reach  in  their  admiration. 


76  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

I  can  not  conceive  that  other  old  men  feel  differently.  Of 
course  I  can  not  demonstrate  what  I  say ;  but  I  was  young  once, 
and  I  am  sure  I  was  never  ungenerously  thrust  back.  I  hardly 
know  what  to  say.  The  way  for  a  young  man  to  rise  is  to 
improve  himself  in  every  way  he  can,  never  suspecting  that 
anybody  wishes  to  hinder  him.  Allow  me  to  assure  you  that 
suspicion  and  jealousy  never  did  help  any  man  in  any  situation. 
There  may  sometimes  be  ungenerous  attempts  to  keep  a  young 
man  down;  and  they  will  succeed,  too,  if  he  allows  his  mind 
to  be  diverted  from  its  true  channel  to  brood  over  the  attempted 
injury.  Cast  about,  and  see  if  this  feeling  has  not  injured 
every  person  you  have  ever  known  to  fall  into  it. 

Like  all  the  other  politicians  in  Congress,  Lincoln  makes 
political  speeches  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  business 
before  the  House. 

2jth.  (In  the  House.)  Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  no  business  or 
inclination  of  mine  to  defend  Martin  Van  Buren.  In  the  war 
of  extermination  now  waging  between  him  and  his  old  admir- 
ers, I  say,  "Devil  take  the  hindmost" — and  the  foremost.  But 
there  is  no  mistaking  the  origin  of  the  breach :  and  if  the  curse 
of  "stinking"  and  "rotting"  is  to  fall  on  the  first  and  greatest 
violators  of  principle  in  the  matter,  I  disinterestedly  suggest 
that  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  and  his  present  co-workers 
are  bound  to  take  it  upon  themselves.  But  the  gentleman  from 
Georgia  further  says  we  have  deserted  all  our  principles,  and 
taken  shelter  under  General  Taylor's  military  coat-tail,  and  he 
seems  to  think  this  is  exceedingly  degrading.  Well,  as  his 
faith  is,  so  be  it  unto  him.  But  can  he  remember  no  other 
military  coat-tail  under  which  a  certain  other  party  has  been 
sheltering,  for  near  a  quarter  of  a  century?  Has  he  no  ac- 
qaintance  with  the  ample  military  coat-tail  of  General  Jack- 
son? Does  he  not  know  that  his  own  party  has  run  the  five 
last  presidential  races  under  that  coat-tail  ?    And  that  they  are. 


age  39]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  77 

now  running  the  sixth  under  the  same  cover?  Yes,  sir,  that 
coat-tail  was  used  not  only  for  General  Jackson  himself,  but 
has  been  clung  to,  with  the  grip  of  death,  by  every  Democratic 
candidate  since.  You  have  never  ventured,  and  dare  not  now 
venture,  from  under  it.  Your  campaign  papers  have  constantly 
been  "Old  Hickories,"  with  rude  likenesses  of  the  old  general 
upon  them;  hickory  poles  and  hickory  brooms  your  never- 
ending  emblems;  Mr.  Polk  himself  was  "Young  Hickory," 
"Little  Hickory,"  or  something  so ;  and  even  now  your  cam- 
paign paper  here  is  proclaiming  that  Cass  and  Butler  are  of 
the  true  "Hickory  stripe."  Now,  sir,  you  dare  not  give  it  up. 
Like  a  horde  of  hungry  ticks  you  have  stuck  to  the  tail  of  the 
Llermitage  lion  to  the  end  of  his  life;  and  you  are  still  sticking 
to  it,  and  drawing  a  loathsome  sustenance  from  it,  after  he  is 
dead. 

But  in  my  hurry  I  was  very  near  closing  this  subject  of 
military  tails  before  I  was  done  with  it.  There  is  one  entire 
article  of  the  sort  I  have  not  discussed  yet ;  I  mean  the  military 
tail  you  Democrats  are  now  engaged  in  dove-tailing  into  the 
great  Michigander.  Yes,  sir,  all  his  biographers  (and  they  are 
legion)  have  him  in  hand,  tying  him  to  a  military  tail,  like  so 
many  mischievous  boys  tying  a  dog  to  a  bladder  of  beans. 
True,  the  material  they  have  is  very  limited,  but  they  drive  at 
it  might  and  main.  He  invaded  Canada  without  resistance, 
and  he  Evaded  it  without  pursuit.  As  he  did  both  under 
orders,  I  suppose  there  was,  to  him,  neither  credit  nor  discredit 
in  them;  but  they  constitute  a  large  part  of  the  tail.  He  was 
not  at  Hull's  surrender,  but  he  was  close  by ;  he  was  volunteer 
aide  to  General  Harrison  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of  the 
Thames;  and  as  you  said  in  1840  Harrison  was  picking  huckle- 
berries two  miles  off  while  the  battle  was  fought,  I  suppose  it 
is  a  just  conclusion  with  you  to  say  Cass  was  aiding  Harrison 
to  pick  whortleberries.  This  is  about  all,  except  the  mooted 
question  of  the  broken  sword.    Some  authors  say  he  broke  it; 


78  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

some  say  he  threw  it  away;  and  some  others,  who  ought  to 
know,  say  nothing  about  it.  Perhaps  it  would  be  a  fair  his- 
torical compromise  to  say,  if  he  did  not  break  it,  he  did  not  do 
anything  else  with  it. 

By  the  way,  Mr.  Speaker,  did  you  know  I  am  a  military 
hero?  Yes,  sir;  in  the  days  of  the  Black  Llawk  war  I  fought, 
bled,  and  came  away.  Speaking  of  General  Cass's  career  re- 
minds me  of  my  own.  I  was  not  at  Stillman's  defeat,  but  I  was 
about  as  near  it  as  Cass  was  to  LIull's  surrender ;  and,  like  him, 
I  saw  the  place  very  soon  afterward.  It  is  quite  certain  I  did 
not  break  my  sword,  for  I  had  none  to  break ;  but  I  bent  a  mus- 
ket pretty  badly  on  one  occasion.  If  Cass  broke  his  sword,  the 
idea  is  he  broke  it  in  desperation;  I  bent  the  musket  by  acci- 
dent. If  General  Cass  went  in  advance  of  me  in  picking 
whortleberries,  I  guess  I  surpassed  him  in  charges  upon  the 
wild  onions.  If  he  saw  any  live,  fighting  Indians,  it  was  more 
than  I  did;  but  I  had  a  good  many  bloody  struggles  with  the 
mosquitoes;  and  although  I  never  fainted  from  the  loss  of 
blood,  I  can  truly  say  I  was  often  very  hungry. 

Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  should  ever  conclude  to  doff  whatever 
our  Democratic  friends  may  suppose  there  is  of  black-cockade 
Federalism  about  me,  and  therefore  they  shall  take  me  up  as 
their  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  I  protest  they  shall  not 
make  fun  of  me,  as  they  have  of  General  Cass,  by  attempting 
to  write  me  into  a  military  hero. 

August  8  th.  I  am  remaining  here  [Washington]  for  two 
weeks  to  frank  documents. 

28th.  The  news  we  are  receiving  here  now  from  all  parts 
is  on  the  look-up.  We  have  had  several  letters  from  Ohio  to- 
day, all  encouraging.  .  .  .  The  tone  of  the  letters — free  from 
despondency — full  of  hope — is  what  particularly  encourages 
me.  If  a  man  is  scared  when  he  writes,  I  think  I  can  detect  it, 
when  I  see  what  he  writes. 


age  39]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  79 

September.  During  the  adjournment  of  Congress  Lincoln 
makes  a  number  of  speeches  in  New  England. 

September  12th.  (Report  of  Speech  Delivered  at  Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts.)  Mr.  Lincoln  has  a  very  tall  and  thin 
figure,  with  an  intellectual  face,  showing  a  searching  mind  and 
a  cool  judgment.  He  spoke  in  a  clear,  cool  and  very  elo- 
quent manner,  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  carrying  the  audience 
with  him  in  his  able  arguments  and  brilliant  illustrations — only 
interrupted  by  warm  and  frequent  applause.  He  began  by 
expressing  a  real  feeling  of  modesty  in  addressing  an  audience 
"this  side  of  the  mountains,"  a  part  of  the  country  where,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  people  of  his  section,  everybody  was  sup- 
posed to  be  instructed  and  wise.  But  he  had  devoted  his  atten- 
tion to  the  question  of  the  coming  presidential  election,  and 
was  not  unwilling  to  exchange  with  all  whom  he  might  the 
ideas  to  which  he  had  arrived.  He  then  began  to  show  the 
fallacy  of  some  of  the  arguments  against  General  Taylor, 
making  his  chief  theme  the  fashionable  statement  of  all  those 
who  oppose  him  ("the  old  Locofocos  as  well  as  the  new"), 
that  he  has  no  principles,  and  that  the  Whig  party  have  aban- 
doned their  principles  by  adopting  him  as  their  candidate. 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  passed  to  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the 
States,  saying  that  the  people  of  Illinois  agreed  entirely  with 
the  people  of  Massachusetts  on  this  subject,  except  perhaps 
that  they  did  not  keep  so  constantly  thinking  about  it.  All 
agreed  that  slavery  was  an  evil,  but  that  we  were  not  respon- 
sible for  it  and  can  not  affect  it  in  states  of  this  Union  where 
we  do  not  live.  But  the  question  of  the  extension  of  slavery 
to  new  territories  of  this  country  is  a  part  of  our  responsibility 
and  care,  and  is  under  our  control. 

The  "Free  Soil"  men  in  claiming  that  name  indirectly 
attempt  a  deception  by  implying  that  Whigs  were  not  Free  Soil 
men.     In  declaring  that  they  would  "do  their  duty  and  leave 


80  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1848 

the  consequences  to  God,"  merely  gave  an  excuse  for  taking  a 
course  they  were  not  able  to  maintain  by  a  fair  and  full  argu- 
ment. To  make  this  declaration  did  not  show  what  their  duty 
was.  If  it  did  we  should  have  no  use  for  judgment,  we  might 
as  well  be  made  without  intellect,  and  when  divine  or  human 
law  does  not  clearly  point  out  what  is  our  duty,  we  have  no 
means  of  finding  out  what  it  is  by  using  our  most  intelligent 
judgment  of  the  consequences. 

22nd.  (To  William  H.  Seward,  following  the  meeting  at 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  where  both  were  speakers.) 

Governor  Seward,  I  have  been  thinking  about  what  you 
said  in  your  speech,  I  reckon  you  are  right.  We  have  got  to 
deal  with  this  slavery  question  and  got  to  give  much  more 
attention  to  \t  hereafter  than  we  have  been  doing. 

Visits  Niagara  Falls  while  on  the  way  home  to  Illinois. 

The  thing  that  struck  me  most  forcibly  when  I  saw  the 
Falls  was,  where  in  the  world  did  all  that  water  come  from? 

At  Springfield,  finds  that  the  younger  Whigs  do  not  like 
his  course  in  Congress  and  that  the  older  Whigs  are  losing 
influence.  No  chance  for  him  to  be  renominated.  He  returns 
to  Washington. 

His  father  with  whom  he  corresponded  so  little  writes  him 
a  singular  letter  which  causes  the  son  to  feel  misgivings. 

December  24th,  Washington. 

(To  Thomas  Lincoln.)  Your  letter  of  the  7th  was  re- 
ceived night  before  last.  I  very  cheerfully  send  you  the  twenty 
dollars,  which  sum  you  say  is  necessary  to  save  your  land  from 
sale.  It  is  singular  that  you  should  have  forgotten  a  judgment 
against  you;  and  it  is  more  singular  that  the  plaintiff  should 


mi  g&nssi 


age  39]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  81 

have  let  you  forget  it  so  long,  particularly  as  I  suppose  you 
always  had  property  enough  to  satisfy  a  judgment  of  that 
amount.  Before  you  pay  it,  it  would  be  well  to  be  sure  you 
have  not  paid,  or  at  least  that  you  can  not  prove  that  you 
have  paid  it. 

Give  my  love  to  mother  and  all  connections.     Affection- 
ately your  son — * 


*The  character  of  Thomas  Lincoln  has  been  much  discussed.  The  evi- 
dence with  regard  to  him  is  slight  and  indirect.  Does  not  this  letter  indicate 
a  doubt  of  his  veracity  in  the  mind  of  his  son? 


1849-1853 

As  his  term  draws  to  a  close  he  puts  himself  on  record  with 
regard  to  slavery  by  introducing  a  bill  in  which  the  House  has 
so  little  interest  that  a  vote  upon  it  is  evaded. 

January  16th,  1849.  (From  the  Congressional  Globe.) 
Mr.  Lincoln  moved  the  following  amendment  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  Congress,  instructing  the  proper  committee 
to  report  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  with  the  consent  of  the  voters  of  the  District,  and 
with  compensation  to  owners.* 

As  his  term  is  almost  ended,  Lincoln  enters  upon  his  one 
attempt  at  office  seeking — through  wire-pulling  in  Washington. 

20th.  I  believe  that  so  far  as  the  Whigs  in  Congress  are 
concerned,  I  could  have  the  General  Land  Office  (at  Washing- 
ton) almost  by  common  consent;  but  then  Sweet  and  Don 
Morrison  and  Browning  and  Cyrus  Edwards  all  want  it,  and 
what  is  worse,  while  I  think  I  could  easily  take  it  myself,  I 
fear  I  shall  have  trouble  to  get  it  for  any  other  man  in  Illinois. 
The  reason  is  that  McGaughey,  an  Indiana  ex-member  of  Con- 
gress, is  here  after  it,  and  being  personally  known,  he  will  be 
hard  to  beat  by  any  one  who  is  not.f 


*The  text  of  Lincoln's  emancipation  bill  is  in  the  Congressional  Globe, 
January  16,  1849;  also  in  Nicolay  and  Hay,  1,  286-288;  in  the  Biographical 
edition  of  his  Complete  Works,  and  in  the  Putnam  edition  of  his  Complete 
Writings, 

tSee  pp.  85-89  for  the  subsequent  history  of  this  curious  matter. 

82 


age  4o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  83 

February  20th.  (To  C.  R.  Welles.)  This  is  Tuesday 
evening,  and  your  letter  enclosing  the  one  of  Young  &  Brothers 
to  you,  saying  the  money  sent  by  me  to  them  had  not  been  re- 
ceived, came  to  hand  last  Saturday  night.  The  facts,  which  are 
perfectly  fresh  in  my  recollection,  are  these :  You  gave  me  the 
money  in  a  letter  (open,  I  believe)  directed  to  Young  & 
Brothers.  To  make  it  more  secure  than  it  would  be  in  my  hat, 
where  I  carry  most  all  my  packages,  I  put  it  in  my  trunk.  I 
had  a  great  many  jobs  to  do  in  St.  Louis;  and  by  the  very 
extra  care  I  had  taken  of  yours,  overlooked  it.  On  the  Steam 
Boat  near  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  I  opened  the  trunk,  and  dis- 
covered the  letter.  I  then  began  to  cast  about  for  some  safe 
hand  to  send  it  back  by.  Mr.  Yeatman,  Judge  Pope's  son- 
in-law,  and  stepson  of  Mr.  Bell  of  Tennessee,  was  on  board, 
and  was  to  return  immediately  to  St.  Louis,  from  the  Mouth 
of  Cumberland.  At  my  request,  he  took  the  letter  and  prom- 
ised to  deliver  it,  and  I  heard  no  more  about  it  till  I  received 
your  letter  on  Saturday.  It  so  happens  that  Mr.  Yeatman  is 
now  in  this  City;  I  called  on  him  last  night  about  it;  he  said 
he  remembered  my  giving  him  the  letter,  and  he  could  remem- 
ber nothing  more  of  it.  He  told  me  he  would  try  and  refresh 
his  memory,  and  see  me  again  concerning  it  to-day,  which, 
however,  he  has  not  done.  I  will  try  to  see  him  to-morrow  and 
write  you  again.  He  is  a  young  man,  as  I  understand,  of  un- 
questioned, and  unquestionable  character;  and  this  makes  me 
fear  some  pickpocket  on  the  boat  may  have  seen  me  give  him 
the  letter,  and  slipped  it  from  him.  In  this  way,  never  seeing 
the  letter  again,  he  would,  naturally  enough,  never  think  of  it 
again. 

March  3rd.     Congressional  career  ends. 
4th.     Attends  Taylor s  inaugural  ball.     Member  of  com- 
mittee on  arrangements. 

gth.      (To    the    Secretary    of    the    Treasury.)       Colonel 
E.  D.  Baker  and  myself  ?re  the  only  Whig  members  of  Con- 


84  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1849 

gress  from  Illinois — I  of  the  Thirtieth,  and  he  of  the  Thirty- 
first.  We  have  reason  to  think  the  Whigs  of  that  State  hold 
us  responsible,  to  some  extent,  for  the  appointments  which  may 
be  made  of  our  citizens.  We  do  not  know  you  personally ;  and 
our  efforts  to  see  you  have,  so  far,  been  unavailing.  I  there- 
fore hope  I  am  not  obtrusive  in  saying  in  this  way,  for  him 
and  myself,  that  when  a  citizen  of  Illinois  is  to  be  appointed 
in  your  department,  to  an  office  either  in  or  out  of  the  State, 
we  most  respectfully  ask  to  be  heard. 

Returns  to  Springfield  and  out  of  savings  from  his  salary 
as  Congressman  pays  off  the  last  of  the  debt  contracted  at  New 
Salem  fifteen  years  before. 

Resumes  the  practise  of  law. 

Wire-pulling  over  the  land  office  continues,  both  with  re- 
gard to  the  Washington  appointees  and  the  local  appointees. 

April  ?th.     Springfield. 

(To  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.)  I  recommend  that 
Walter  Davis  be  appointed  receiver  of  the  land  office  at  this, 
place,  whenever  there  shall  be  a  vacancy.  I  can  not  say  that 
Mr.  Herndon,  the  present  incumbent,  has  failed  in  the  proper 
discharge  of  any  of  the  duties  of  the  office.  He  is  a  very 
warm  partisan,  and  openly  and  actively  opposed  to  the  election 
of  General  Taylor.  I  also  understand  that  since  General  Tay- 
lor's election,  he  has  received  a  reappointment  from  Mr.  Polk, 
his  old  commission  not  having  expired.  Whether  this  is  true 
the  records  of  the  department  will  show.  I  may  add  that 
the  Whigs  here  almost  universally  desire  his  removal. 

I  give  no  opinion  of  my  own,  but  state  the  facts,  and  ex- 
press the  hope  that  the  department  will  act  in  this  as  in  all 
other  cases  on  some  proper  general  rule. 

I  recommend  that  Turner  R.  King,  now  of  Pekin,  Illinois, 
be  appointed  register  of  the  land  office  at  this  place  whenever 
there  shall  be  a  vacancy. 


age  4o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  85 

(To  W.  B.  Warren  and  others.)  In  answer  to  your 
note  concerning  the  General  Land  Office  I  have  to  say  that,  if 
the  office  could  be  secured  to  Illinois  by  my  consent  to  accept 
it,  and  not  otherwise,  I  give  that  consent.  Some  months  since 
I  gave  my  word  to  secure  the  appointment  to  that  office  of 
Mr.  Cyrus  Edwards,  if  in  my  power,  in  case  of  a  vacancy;  and 
more  recently  I  stipulated  with  Colonel  Baker  that  if  Mr.  Ed- 
wards and  Colonel  J.  L.  D.  Morrison  could  arrange  with  each 
other  for  one  of  them  to  withdraw,  we  would  jointly  recom- 
mend the  other.  In  relation  to  these  pledges,  I  must  not  only 
be  chaste,  but  above  suspicion.  If  the  office  shall  be  tendered 
to  me,  I  must  be  permitted  to  say :  "Give  it  to  Mr.  Edwards  or, 
if  so  agreed  by  them,  to  Colonel  Morrison,  and  I  decline  it;  if 
not,  I  accept."  With  this  understanding  you  are  at  liberty  to 
procure  me  the  offer  of  the  appointment  if  you  can;  and  I 
shall  feel  complimented  by  your  effort,  and  still  more  by  its 
success. 

25th.     (To Thompson.)     A  tirade  is  still  kept 

up  against  me  here  for  recommending  (April  7)  T.  R.  King. 
This  morning  it  is  openly  avowed  that  my  supposed  influence 
at  Washington  shall  be  broken  down  generally,  and  King's 
prospects  defeated  in  particular.  Now,  what  I  have  done  in 
this  matter  I  have  done  at  the  request  of  you  and  some  other 
friends  in  Tazewell;  and  I  therefore  ask  you  to  either  admit 
it  is  wrong,  or  come  forward  and  sustain  me. 

May  loth.  (To  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.)  I  regret 
troubling  you  so  often  in  relation  to  the  land-offices  here,  but 
I  hope  you  will  perceive  the  necessity  of  it,  and  excuse  me. 
On  the  7th  of  April  I  wrote  you  recommending  Turner  R. 
King  for  register,  and  Walter  Davis  for  receiver.  Subse- 
quently I  wrote  you  that,  for  a  private  reason,  I  had  con- 
cluded to  transpose  them.  That  private  reason  was  the  re- 
quest of  an  old  personal  friend  who  himself  desired  to  be 
receiver,  but  whom  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  refuse  a  recommen- 


86  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1849 

elation.  He  said  if  I  would  transpose  King  and  Davis  he 
would  be  satisfied.  I  thought  it  a  whim,  but,  anxious  to  oblige 
him,  I  consented.  Immediately  he  commenced  an  assault  upon 
King's  character,  intending,  as  I  suppose,  to  defeat  his  ap- 
pointment, and  thereby  secure  another  chance  for  himself. 
This  double  offense  of  bad  faith  to  me  and  slander  upon  a 
good  man  is  so  totally  outrageous  that  I  now  ask  to  have 
King  and  Davis  placed  as  I  originally  recommended — that  is, 
King  for  register  and  Davis  for  receiver. 

1 8th.  (To  Duff  Green.)  I  learn  from  Washington  that 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Butter  field  will  probably  be  appointed 
Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office.  This  ought  not 
to  be.  That  is  about  the  only  crumb  of  patronage  which 
Illinois  expects;  and  I  am  sure  the  mass  of  General  Taylor's 
friends  here  would  quite  as  lief  see  it  go  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghenies,  or  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  as  into  that  man's 
hands.  They  are  already  sore  on  the  subject  of  his  getting 
office.  In  the  great  contest  of  1840  he  was  not  seen  or 
heard  of;  but  when  the  victory  came,  three  or  four  old 
drones,  including  him,  got  all  the  valuable  offices,  through 
what  influence  no  one  has  yet  been  able  to  tell.  I  believe 
the  only  time  he  has  been  very  active  was  last  spring  a  year 
ago,  in  opposition  to  General  Taylor's  nomination. 

Now  can  not  you  get  the  ear  of  General  Taylor?  Ewing 
is  for  Butterfield,  and  therefore  he  must  be  avoided.  Preston, 
I  think,  will  favor  you.  Mr.  Edwards  has  written  me  offer- 
ing to  decline,  but  I  advised  him  not  to  do  so.  Some  kind 
friends  think  I  ought  to  be  an  appellant,  but  I  am  for  Mr. 
Edwards.  Try  to  defeat  Butterfield,  and  in  doing  so  use  Mr. 
Edwards,  J.  L.  D.  Morrison,  or  myself,  whichever  you  can 
to  best  advantage.     Write  me,  and  let  this  be  confidential. 

ipth.  Butterfield  will  be  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office,  unless  prevented  by  strong  and  speedy  efforts. 
Ewing  is  for  him  and  he  is  only  not  appointed  yet  because  old 
Zach.  [Taylor]  hangs  fire. 


age  4o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  Sy 

By  way  of  variety  in  the  midst  of  his  political  anxieties  he 
devises  a  curious  invention  and  applies  for  a  patent. 

22nd.  What  I  claim  as  my  invention,  and  desire  to  secure 
by  letters  patent,  is  the  combination  of  expansible  buoy- 
ant chambers  placed  at  the  sides  of  a  vessel  with  the  main 
shaft  or  shafts  by  means  of  the  sliding  spars  which  pass  down 
through  the  buoyant  chambers  and  are  made  fast  to  their  bot- 
toms and  the  series  of  ropes  and  pulleys  or  their  equivalents  in 
such  a  manner  that  by  turning  the  main  shaft  or  shafts  in 
one  direction  the  buoyant  chambers  will  be  forced  down- 
wards into  the  water,  and  at  the  same  time  expanded  and 
filled  with  air  for  buoying  up  the  vessel  by  the  displacement  of 
water,  and  by  turning  the  shafts  in  an  opposite  direction  the 
buoyant  chambers  will  be  contracted  into  a  small  space  and 
secured  against  injury. 

Returning  to  the  problem  of  the  Land  Office — 

25th.  (To  E.  Embree.)  I  understand  that  the  General 
Land  Office  is  about  to  be  given  to  Illinois,  and  that  Mr. 
Ewing  desires  Justin  Butterfield  of  Chicago,  to  be  the  man. 
I  give  you  my  word,  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Butterfield  will 
be  an  egregious  offense  to  the  whole  Whig  party  here,  and 
be  worse  than  a  dead  loss  to  the  administration  of  so  much 
of  its  patronage. 

There  are  other  questions  of  patronage. 

June  $th.  (To  William  H.  Herndon.)  There  must  be 
some  mistake  about  Walter  Davis  saying  I  promised  him  the 
Post-office.  I  did  not  so  promise  him.  I  did  tell  him  that 
if  the  distribution  of  the  offices  should  fall  into  my  hands,  he 
should  have  anything;  and  if  I  shall  be  convinced  he  has  said 
any  more  than  this,  I  shall  be  disappointed. 


88  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [iftfc 

I  said  this  much  to  him  because,  as  I  understand,  he  is 
of  good  character,  is  one  of  the  young  men,  is  of  the  mechanics, 
and  always  faithful  and  never  troublesome;  a  Whig,  and  is 
poor,  with  the  support  of  a  widow  mother  thrown  almost  ex- 
clusively on  him  by  the  death  of  his  brother.  If  these  are 
wrong  reasons,  then  I  have  been  wrong;  but  I  have  certainly 
not  been  selfish  in  it,  because  in  my  greatest  need  of  friends  he 
was  against  me,  and  for  Baker. 

At  last  he  decides  to  play  his  own  hand  with  regard  to 
the  Land  Office. 

8th.  (To  Nathaniel  Pope.)  I  do  not  know  that  it  would, 
but  I  can  well  enough  conceive  it  might  embarrass  you  to 
now  give  a  letter  recommending  me  for  the  General  Land 
Office.  Could  you  not,  howevet,  without  embarrassment  or 
any  impropriety,  so  far  indicate  the  truth  of  history  as  to 
briefly  state  to  me,  in  a  letter,  what  you  did  say  to  me  last 
spring,  on  my  arrival  here  from  Washington,  in  relation  to 
my  becoming  an  applicant  for  that  office?  Having  at  last 
concluded  to  be  an  applicant,  I  have  thought  it  is  perhaps  due 
to  me  to  be  enabled  to  show  the  influences  which  brought  me 
to  the  conclusion,  and  of  which  influences  the  wishes  and 
opinions  you  expressed,  were  not  the  least. 

Butterfield,  with  strong  backing  at  Washington,  succeeds 
in  obtaining  the  Land  Office  appointment. 

Unexpected  bitterness  in  connection  with  the  Land  Office. 

July  13th.  Mr.  Edwards  is  unquestionably  offended  with 
me  in  connection  with  the  matter  of  the  General  Land  Office. 
He  wrote  a  letter  against  me  which  was  filed  at  the  Depart- 
ment. 

The  better  part  of  one's  life  consists  of  his  friendships; 
and,  of  them,  mine  with  Mr.  Edwards  was  one  of  the  most 


age  40]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  89 

cherished.  I  have  not  been  false  to  it.  At  a  word  I  could 
have  had  the  office  any  time  before  the  Department  was 
committed  to  Mr.  Butterfield — at  least  Mr.  Ewing  and  the 
President  say  as  much.  That  word  I  forbore  to  speak,  partly 
for  other  reasons,  but  chiefly  for  Mr.  Edwards'  sake — losing 
the  office  that  he  might  gain  it,  I  was  always  for;  but 
to  lose  his  friendship  by  the  effort  for  him,  would  oppress 
me  very  much,  were  I  not  sustained  by  the  utmost  con- 
sciousness of  rectitude.  I  first  determined  to  be  an  appli- 
cant, unconditionally,  on  the  2nd  of  June;  and  I  did  so  then 
upon   being  informed   by  a   Telegraphic   despatch   that   the 

question  was  narrowed  down  to  Mr.  B. and  myself,  and 

that  the  Cabinet  had  postponed  the  appointment,  three  weeks, 
for  my  benefit.  Not  doubting  that  Mr.  Edwards  was  wholly 
out  of  the  question,  I,  nevertheless,  would  not  then  have  be- 
come an  applicant  had  I  supposed  he  would  thereby  be  brought 
to  suspect  me  of  treachery  to  him.  Two  or  three  days  after- 
ward a  conversation  with  Levi  Davis  convinced  me  Mr.  Ed- 
wards was  dissatisfied;  but  I  was  then  too  far  in  to  get  out. 
His  own  letter,  written  on  the  25th  of  April,  after  I  had  fully 
informed  him  of  all  that  had  passed  up  to  within  a  few  days 
of  that  time,  gave  assurance  I  had  that  entire  confidence  from 
him,  which  I  felt  my  uniform  and  strong  friendship  for  him 
entitled  me  to. 

28th.     Springfield. 

(To  John  M.  Clayton,  Secretary  of  State.)'  It  is  with 
some  hesitation  I  presume  to  address  this  letter — and  yet 
I  wish  not  only  you,  but  the  whole  Cabinet,  and  the  Presi- 
dent too,  would  consider  the  subject  matter  of  it.  My  being 
among  the  People  while  you  and  they  are  not,  will  excuse 
the  apparent  presumption.  It  is  understood  that  the  President 
at  first  adopted,  as  a  general  rule,  to  throw  the  responsibility 
of  the  appointments  upon  the  respective  Departments;  and 
that   such   rule    is   adhered   to   and   practised   upon.      This 


90  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1849-50 

course  I  at  first  thought  proper;  and,  of  course,  I  am 
not  now  complaining  of  it.  Still  I  am  disappointed  with 
the  effect  of  it  on  the  public  mind.  It  is  fixing  for  the  Presi- 
dent the  unjust  and  ruinous  character  of  being  a  mere  man 
of  straw.  This  must  be  arrested,  or  it  will  damn  us  all  in- 
evitably. It  is  said  General  Taylor  and  his  officers  held  a 
council  of  war,  at  Palo  Alto  (I  believe)  ;  and  that  he  then 
fought  the  battle  against  unanimous  opinion  of  those  officers. 
This  fact  (no  matter  whether  rightfully  or  wrongfully)  gives 
him  more  popularity  than  ten  thousand  submissions,  however 
really  wise  and  magnanimous  those  submissions  may  be. 

The  appointments  need  be  no  better  than  they  have  been, 
but  the  public  must  be  brought  to  understand  that  they  are 
the  President's  appointments.  He  must  occasionally  say,  or 
seem  to  say,  "by  the  Eternal/'  "I  take  the  responsibility.,, 
Those  phrases  were  the  "Samson's  locks"  of  General  Jackson 
and  we  dare  not  disregard  the  lessons  of  experience. 

The  Hungarian  revolution  arouses  general  sympathy  in 
America.  Lincoln  draws  up  resolutions  adopted  at  a  public 
meeting. 

September  12th.  Resolved,  That  in  their  present  glorious 
struggle  for  liberty,  the  Hungarians  command  our  highest 
admiration  and  have  our  warmest  sympathy. 

Resolved,  That  they  have  our  most  ardent  prayers  for  their 
speedy  triumph  and  final  success. 

Resolved,  That  the  Government  of  the  United  States  should 
acknowledge  the  independence  of  Hungary  as  a  nation  of  free- 
men at  the  very  earliest  moment  consistent  with  our  amicable 
relations  with  the  government  against  which  they  are  con- 
tending. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  the  im- 
mediate acknowledgment  of  the  independence  of  Hungary  by 


age  4o-4i]        AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  91 

our  government  is  due  from  American  freemen  to  their  strug- 
gling brethren,  to  the  general  cause  of  republican  liberty,  and, 
not  violative  of  the  just  rights  of  any  nation  or  people. 

Meanwhile,  the  President  has  decided  to  compensate  him 
for  the  loss  of  the  Land  Office.  Mrs.  Lincoln  strongly  op- 
poses accepting  the  substitute  appointment  and  her  husband 
declines  it. 

27th.  (To  John  Addison.)  I  can  not  but  be  grateful 
to  you  and  all  other  friends  who  have  interested  them- 
selves in  having  the  governorship  of  Oregon  offered  to  me; 
but  on  as  much  reflection  as  I  have  had  time  to  give  the  subject, 
I  can  not  consent  to  accept  it.  As  to  the  secretaryship  (of 
Oregon)  I  have  already  recommended  our  friend  Simeon 
Frances  of  the  Journal. 

Lincoln  now  devoted  himself  to  the  practise  of  law,  travel- 
ing  much  "on  the  circuit!'  After  a  sort  of  impromptu  con- 
cert, in  a  hotel,  when  he  was  being  teased  to  sing: 

Autumn.  Why,  Miss  Newhall,  if  it  was  to  save  my  soul 
from  hell,  I  couldn't  imitate  a  note  that  you  would  touch  on 
that  [piano].  I  never  sung  in  my  life  and  never  was  able 
to.  Those  fellows  [who  had  been  teasing  him  about  his  sing- 
ing] are  just  simply  liars.  But  I'll  tell  you  what  111  do  for 
you.  You  girls  have  been  so  kind  singing  for  us,  I'll  repeat 
to  you  my  favorite  poem.  ["Oh  why  should  the  spirit  of 
mortal  be  proud."] 

His  relations  with  his  family  have  been  spasmodic  during 
many  years.    Now,  his  half-brother  resumes  correspondence. 

February  23rd,  1850.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  Your  let- 
ter about  a  mail  contract  was  received  yesterday.     I  have  made 


92  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1850 

out  a  bid  for  you  at  $120,  guaranteed  to  myself,  got  our  p.  m. 
here  to  certify  it,  and  send  it  on.  Your  former  letter,  concern- 
ing some  man's  claim  for  a  pension,  was  also  received.  I  had 
the  claim  examined  by  those  who  are  practised  in  such  matters, 
and  they  decide  he  can  not  get  a  pension. 

As  you  make  no  mention  of  it,  I  suppose  you  had  not 
learned  that  we  lost  our  little  boy.  He  was  sick  fifteen  days, 
and  died  in  the  morning  of  the  first  day  of  this  month.  It 
was  not  our  first,  but  our  second  child.  We  miss  him  very 
much. 

As  a  business  correspondent  he  continues  incorrigible. 

June  27th.  (To  Richard  S.  Thomas.)  I  am  ashamed  of 
not  sooner  answering  your  letter,  herewith  returned;  and  my 
only  apologies  are,  first,  that  I  have  been  very  busy  in  the 
U.  S.  court;  and  second,  that  when  I  received  the  letter  I  put 
it  in  my  old  hat,  and  buying  a  new  one  the  next  day,  the  old 
one  was  set  aside,  and  so  the  letter  was  lost  sight  of  for  a  time. 

He  develops  lofty  views  about  his  profession. 

(Notes  for  Law  Lecture.)  I  am  not  an  accomplished 
lawyer.  I  find  quite  as  much  material  for  a  lecture  in  those 
points  wherein  I  have  failed,  as  in  those  wherein  I  have  been 
moderately  successful.  The  leading  rule  for  the  lawyer,  as  for 
the  man  of  every  other  calling,  is  diligence.  Leave  nothing  for 
to-morrow  which  can  de  done  to-day.  Never  let  your  corre- 
spondence fall  behind.  Whatever  piece  of  business  you  have 
in  hand,  before  stopping,  do  all  the  labor  pertaining  to  it  which 
can  then  be  done.  When  you  bring  a  common-law  suit,  if  you 
have  the  facts  for  doing  so,  write  the  declaration  at  once.  If  a 
law  point  be  involved,  examine  the  books,  and  note  the  author- 
ity you  rely  upon  for  the  declaration  itself,  where  you  are  sure 
to  find  it  when  wanted.    The  same  of  defenses  and  pleas.    In 


age  4i]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  93 

business  not  likely  to  be  litigated — ordinary  collection  cases, 
foreclosures,  partitions,  and  the  like — make  all  examinations 
of  titles,  and  note  them,  and  even  draft  orders  and  degrees  in 
advance.  This  course  has  a  triple  advantage,  saves  your  labor 
when  once  done,  performs  the  labor  out  of  court  when  you 
have  leisure,  rather  than  in  court  when  you  have  not.  Extem- 
poraneous speaking  should  be  practised  and  cultivated.  It  is 
the  lawyer's  avenue  to  the  public.  However  able  and  faithful 
he  may  be  in  other  respects,  people  are  slow  to  bring  him  busi- 
ness if  he  can  not  make  a  speech.  And  yet  there  is  not  a  more 
fatal  error  to  young  lawyers  than  relying  too  much  on  speech- 
making.  If  any  one,  upon  his  rare  powers  of  speaking,  shall 
claim  an  exemption  from  the  drudgery  of  the  law,  his  case  is  a 
failure  in  advance. 

Discourage  litigation.  Persuade  your  neighbors  to  com- 
promise whenever  you  can.  Point  out  to  them  how  the  nominal 
winner  is  often  a  real  loser — in  fees,  expenses,  and  waste  of 
time.  As  a  peace-maker  the  lawyer  has  a  superior  opportunity 
of  being  a  good  man.    There  will  still  be  business  enough. 

Never  stir  up  litigation.  A  worse  man  can  scarcely  be 
found  than  one  who  does  this.  Who  can  be  more  nearly  a 
fiend  than  he  who  habitually  overhauls  the  register  of  deeds 
in  search  of  defects  in  titles,  whereon  to  stir  up  strife,  and  put 
money  in  his  pocket?  A  moral  tone  ought  to  be  infused  into 
the  profession  which  should  drive  such  men  out  of  it. 

The  matter  of  fees  is  important,  far  beyond  the  mere 
question  of  bread  and  butter  involved.  Properly  attended  to, 
fuller  justice  is  done  to  both  lawyer  and  client.  An  exorbi- 
tant fee  should  never  be  claimed.  As  a  general  rule  never  take 
your  whole  fee  in  advance,  nor  any  more  than  a  small  retainer. 
When  fully  paid  beforehand,  you  are  more  than  a  common 
mortal  if  you  can  feel  the  same  interest  in  the  case,  as  if 
something  was  still  in  prospect  for  you,  as  well  as  for  your 
client.     And  when  you  lack  interest  in  the  case  the  job  will 


94  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1851 

very  likely  lack  skill  and  diligence  in  the  performance.  Settle 
the  amount  of  fee  and  take  a  note  in  advance.  Then  you  will 
feel  that  you  are  working  for  something,  and  you  are  sure  to 
do  your  work  faithfully  and  well.  Never  sell  a  fee  note — at 
least  not  before  the  consideration  service  is  performed.  It 
leads  to  negligence  and  dishonesty — negligence  by  losing  in- 
terest in  the  case,  and  dishonesty  in  refusing  to  refund  when 
you  have  allowed  the  consideration  to  fail. 

There  is  a  vague  popular  belief  that  lawyers  are  necessarily 
dishonest.  I  say  vague,  because  when  we  consider  to  what 
extent  confidence  and  honors  are  reposed  in  and  conferred 
upon  lawyers  by  the  people,  it  appears  improbable  that  their 
impression  of  dishonesty  is  very  distinct  and  vivid.  Yet  the 
impression  is  common,  almost  universal.  Let  no  young  man 
choosing  the  law  for  a  calling  for  a  moment  yield  to  the  pop- 
ular belief — resolve  to  be  honest  at  all  events;  and  if  in  your 
own  judgment  you  can  not  be  an  honest  lawyer,  resolve  to  be 
honest  without  being  a  lawyer.  Choose  some  other  occu- 
pation, rather  than  one  in  the  choosing  of  which  you  do,  in 
advance,  consent  to  be  a  knave. 

Family  matters  imperatively  claim  his  attention. 

January  2nd,  18 51.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  You  are 
now  in  need  of  some  money;  and  what  I  propose  is,  that  you 
shall  go  to  work,  "tooth  and  nail,"  for  somebody  who  will  give 
you  money  for  it.  Let  father  and  your  boys  take  charge  of  your 
things  at  home,  prepare  for  a  crop,  and  make  a  crop,  and  you 
go  to  work  for  the  best  money  wages,  or  in  discharge  of  any 
debt  you  owe,  that  you  can  get;  and,  to  secure  you  a  fair 
reward  for  your  labor,  I  now  promise  you,  that  for  every 
dollar  you  will,  between  this  and  the  first  of  May,  get  for  your 
own  labor,  either  in  money  or  as  your  own  indebtedness,  I  will 
then  give  you  one  other  dollar. 


age  42]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  95 

1 2th.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  On  the  day  before  yes- 
terday I  received  a  letter  from  Harriet,  written  at  Greenup. 
She  says  she  has  just  returned  from  your  house,  and  that 
father  is  very  low  and  will  hardly  recover.  She  also  says  you 
have  written  me  two  letters,  and  that  although  you  do  not 
expect  me  to  come  now,  you  wonder  that  I  do  not  write. 

I  received  both  your  letters,  and  although  I  have  not 
answered  them,  it  is  not  because  I  have  forgotten  them,  or 
been  uninterested  about  them,  but  because  it  appeared  to  me 
that  I  could  write  nothing  which  would  do  any  good.  You 
already  know  I  desire  that  neither  father  nor  mother  shall  be 
in  want  of  any  comfort,  either  in  health  or  sickness,  while  they 
live;  and  I  feel  sure  you  have  not  failed  to  use  my  name,  if 
necessary,  to  procure  a  doctor,  or  anything  else  for  father  in 
his  present  sickness.  My  business  is  such  that  I  could  hardly 
leave  home  now,  if  it  was  not,  as  it  is,  that  my  own  wife  is 
sick-a-bed.  (It  is  a  case  of  baby-sickness,  and  I  suppose  is 
not  dangerous.)  I  sincerely  hope  Father  may  recover  his 
health,  but  at  all  events,  tell  him  to  remember  and  call  upon 
and  confide  in  our  great  and  good  and  merciful  Maker,  who 
will  not  turn  away  from  him  in  any  extremity.  He  notes 
the  fall  of  a  sparrow,  and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads, 
and  He  will  not  forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust  in 
Him.  Say  to  him  that  if  we  could  meet  now  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  would  not  be  more  painful  than  pleasant,  but  that 
if  it  be  his  lot  to  go  now,  he  will  soon  have  a  joyous  meeting 
with  many  loved  ones  gone  before,  and  where  the  rest  of  us, 
through  the  help  of  God,  hope  ere  long  to  join  them. 

August  31st.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  Inclosed  is  the 
deed  for  the  land.  We  are  all  well,  and  have  nothing  in  the 
way  of  news.  We  have  had  no  cholera  here  for  about  two 
weeks.     Give  my  love  to  all,  and  especially  to  Mother. 

November  4th.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  When  I  came 
into  Charleston  day  before  yesterday,  I  learned  that  you  are 


96  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1851-52 

anxious  to  sell  the  land  where  you  live,  and  move  to  Mis- 
souri. I  have  been  thinking  of  this  ever  since,  and  can  not 
but  think  such  a  motion  is  utterly  foolish.  What  can  you  do  in 
Missouri  better  than  here?  Is  the  land  any  richer?  Can  you 
there,  any  more  than  here,  raise  corn  and  wheat  and  oats 
without  work?  Will  anybody  there,  any  more  than  here,  do 
your  work  for  you?  If  you  intend  to  go  to  work,  there  is  no 
better  place  than  right  where  you  are;  if  you  do  not  intend  to 
go  to  work,  you  can  not  get  along  anywhere.  Squirming  and 
crawling  about  from  place  to  place  can  do  no  good.  You 
have  raised  no  corn  this  year;  and  what  you  really  want  is  to 
sell  the  land,  get  the  money,  and  spend  it.  Part  with  the 
land  you  have,  and,  my  life  upon  it,  you  will  never  after  own 
a  spot  big  enough  to  bury  you  in.  Half  you  will  get  for  the 
land  you  will  spend  in  moving  to  Missouri,  and  the  other  half 
you  will  eat,  drink,  and  wear  out,  and  no  foot  of  land  will  be 
bought.  Now,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  have  no  hand  in  such  a 
piece  of  foolery.  I  feel  that  it  is  so  even  on  your  own 
account,  and  particularly  on  mother  s  account. 

Your  thousand  pretenses  for  not  getting  along  better  are  all 
nonsense;  they  deceive  nobody  but  yourself.  Go  to  work  is 
the  only  cure  for  your  case. 

pth.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  When  I  wrote  you  before, 
I  had  not  received  your  letter.  I  still  think  as  I  did;  but  if  the 
land  can  be  sold  so  that  I  get  three  hundred  dollars  to  put  to 
interest  for  mother,  I  will  not  object,  if  she  does  not.  But, 
before  I  will  make  a  deed,  the  money  must  be  had,  or  secured 
beyond  all  doubt,  at  ten  per  cent. 

As  to  Abram,  I  do  not  want  him,  on  my  own  account; 
but  I  understand  he  wants  to  live  with  me,  so  that  he  can  go 
to  school  and  get  a  fair  start  in  the  world,  which  I  very  much 
wish  him  to  have.  When  I  reach  home,  if  I  can  make  it  con- 
venient to  take,  I  will  take  him,  provided  there  is  no  mistake 
between  us  as  to  the  object  and  terms  of  my  taking  him. 


age  43-43]        AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  97 

25th.  (To  John  D.  Johnston.)  Your  letter  of  the  22nd 
is  just  received.  Your  proposal  about  selling  the  east  forty 
acres  of  land  is  all  that  I  want  or  could  claim  for  myself;  but 
I  am  not  satisfied  with  it  on  mother  s  account.  I  want  her  to 
have  her  living,  and  I  feel  that  it  is  my  duty,  to  some  extent, 
to  see  that  she  is  not  wronged.  She  had  a  right  of  Dower 
(that  is,  the  use  of  one-third  for  life)  in  the  other  two 
forties ;  but,  it  seems,  she  has  already  let  you  take  that,  hook 
and  line.  She  now  has  the  use  of  the  whole  of  the  East  forty, 
as  long  as  she  lives ;  and  if  it  be  sold,  of  course  she  is  entitled  to 
the  interest  on  all  the  money  it  brings,  as  long  as  she  lives ;  but 
you  propose  to  sell  it  for  three  hundred  dollars,  take  one  hun- 
dred away  with  you,  and  leave  her  two  hundred  at  8  per  cent, 
making  her  the  enormous  sum  of  sixteen  dollars  a  year.  Now, 
if  you  are  satisfied  with  treating  her  in  that  way,  I  am  not.  It 
is  true,  that  you  are  to  have  that  forty  for  two  hundred  dol- 
lars, at  mother's  death;  but  you  are  not  to  have  it  before.  I 
am  confident  that  land  can  be  made  to  produce  for  mother  at 
least  thirty  dollars  a  year,  and  I  can  not,  to  oblige  any  living 
person,  consent  that  she  shall  be  put  on  an  allowance  of  sixteen 
dollars  a  year. 

The  death  of  Henry  Clay,  next  to  Jefferson  perhaps  his 
chief  hero,  leads  him  to  formulate  a  political  attitude  in  eulo- 
gizing his  dead  leader* 

July  16th,  1852.  Mr.  Clay's  predominant  sentiment,  from 
first  to  last,  was  a  deep  devotion  to  the  cause  of  human  lib- 
erty— a  strong  sympathy  with  the  oppressed  everywhere,  and 
an  ardent  wish  for  their  elevation.  With  him  this  was  a 
primary  and  all-controlling  passion.  Subsidiary  to  this  was 
the  conduct  of  his  whole  life.  He  loved  his  country  partly 
because  it  was  his  own  country,  and  mostly  because  it  was  a 
free  country;  and  he  burned  with  a  zeal  for  its  advancement, 


98  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1852 

prosperity,  and  glory,  because  he  saw  in  such  the  advance- 
ment, prosperity,  and  glory  of  human  liberty,  human  right, 
and  human  nature.  He  desired  the  prosperity  of  his  country- 
men, partly  because  they  were  his  countrymen,  but  chiefly  to 
show  to  the  world  that  free  men  could  be  prosperous. 

He  ever  was  on  principle  and  in  feeling  opposed  to  slavery. 
The  very  earliest,  and  one  of  the  latest,  public  efforts  of  his 
life,  separated  by  a  period  of  more  than  fifty  years,  were 
both  made  in  favor  of  gradual  emancipation.  He  did  not  per- 
ceive that  on  a  question  of  human  right  the  negroes  were  to  be 
excepted  from  the  human  race.  And  yet  Mr.  Clay  was  the 
owner  of  slaves.  Cast  into  life  when  slavery  was  already 
widely  spread  and  deeply  seated,  he  did  not  perceive,  as  I 
think  no  wise  man  had  perceived,  how  it  could  be  at  once 
eradicated  without  producing  a  greater  evil  even  to  the  cause 
of  human  liberty  itself.  His  feeling  and  his  judgment,  there- 
fore, ever  led  him  to  oppose  both  extremes  of  opinion  on  the 
subject.  Those  who  would  shiver  into  fragments  the  Union 
of  these  States,  tear  to  tatters  its  now  venerated  Constitution, 
and  even  burn  the  last  copy  of  the  Bible,  rather  than  slavery 
should  continue  a  single  hour,  together  with  all  their  more 
halting  sympathizers,  have  received,  and  are  receiving,  their 
just  execration;  and  the  name  and  opinions  and  influence  of 
Mr.  Clay  are  fully  and,  as  I  trust,  effectually  and  enduringly 
arrayed  against  them.  But  I  would  also,  if  I  could,  array 
his  name,  opinions,  and  influence  against  the  opposite  ex- 
treme— against  a  few  but  an  increasing  number  of  men,  who, 
for  the  sake  of  perpetuating  slavery,  are  beginning  to  assail 
and  to  ridicule  the  white  man's  charter  of  freedom,  the 
declaration  that  "all  men  are  created  free  and  equal." 

The  American  Colonization  Society  was  organized  in 
1 8 16.  Mr.  Clay,  though  not  its  projector,  was  one  of  its 
earliest  members;  and  he  died,  as  for  many  preceding  years 
he  had  been,  its  president.     It  was  one  of  the  most  cherished 


age  43]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  99 

objects  of  his  direct  care  and  consideration,  and  the  associa- 
tion of  his  name  with  it  has  probably  been  its  very  greatest 
collateral  support.  He  considered  it  no  demerit  in  the  society 
that  it  tended  to  relieve  the  slaveholders  from  the  troublesome 
presence  of  the  free  negroes;  but  this  was  far  from  being  its 
whole  merit  in  his  estimation. 

This  suggestion  of  the  possible  ultimate  redemption  of  the 
African  race  and  African  continent  was  made  twenty-five 
years  ago.  Every  succeeding  year  has  added  strength  to  the 
hope  of  its  realization.  May  it  indeed  be  realized.  Pharaoh's 
country  was  cursed  with  plagues,  and  his  hosts  were  lost  in 
the  Red  Sea,  for  striving  to  retain  a  captive  people  who  had 
already  served  them  more  than  four  hundred  years.  May  like 
disasters  never  befall  us!  If,  as  the  friends  of  colonization 
hope,  the  present  and  coming  generations  of  our  countrymen 
shall  by  any  means  succeed  in  freeing  our  land  from  the  dan- 
gerous presence  of  slavery,  and  at  the  same  time  in  restoring 
a  captive  people  to  their  long-lost  fatherland  with  bright  pros- 
pects for  the  future,  and  this  too  so  gradually  that  neither 
races  nor  individuals  shall  have  suffered  by  the  change,  it  will 
indeed  be  a  glorious  consummation,  and  if  to  such  a  con- 
summation the  efforts  of  Mr.  Clay  shall  have  contributed,  it 
will  be  what  he  most  ardently  wished,  and  none  of  his  labors 
will  have  been  more  valuable  to  his  country  and  his  kind. 

In  the  campaign  of  1852  Lincoln  is  sharply  pitted  as  stump 
speaker  against  an  old  acquaintance  who  has  gone  far  ahead 
of  him  in  the  race  for  preferment,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Much 
of  Lincoln's  earlier  bent  for  sarcasm  in  political  speaking  has 
disappeared.  But  now  and  then  something  of  the  earlier  im- 
pulse revives — as  in  these  comments  on  Douglas. 

This  speech  (that  of  Mr.  Douglas  at  Richmond)  has  been 
published  with  high  commendations  in  at  least  one  of  the  Dem- 


ioo  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1852-53 

ocratic  papers  in  this  State,  and  I  suppose  it  has  been  and  will 
be  in  most  of  the  others.  When  I  first  saw  it  and  read  it,  I 
was  reminded  of  old  times,  when  Judge  Douglas  was  not  so 
much  greater  man  than  all  the  rest  of  us,  as  he  is  now, — of  the 
Harrison  campaign  twelve  years  ago,  when  I  used  to  hear  and 
try  to  answer  many  of  his  speeches;  and  believing  that  the 
Richmond  speech,  though  marked  with  the  same  species  of 
"shirks  and  quirks"  as  the  old  ones,  was  not  marked  with  any 
greater  ability,  I  was  seized  with  a  strange  inclination  to  at- 
tempt an  answer  to  it,  and  this  inclination  it  was  that  prompted 
me  to  seek  the  privilege  of  addressing  you  on  this  occasion. 

Let  us  stand  by  our  candidate  as  faithfully  as  he  has 
always  stood  by  our  country,  and  I  much  doubt  if  we  do  not 
perceive  a  slight  abatement  in  Judge  Douglas's  confidence  in 
Providence  as  well  as  in  the  people.  I  suspect  that  confidence 
is  not  more  firmly  fixed  with  the  judge  than  it  is  with  the 
old  woman  whose  horse  ran  away  with  her  in  a  buggy.  She 
said  she  "trusted  in  Providence  till  the  'britchin'  broke,  and 
then  she  didn't  know  what  on  airth  to  do."  The  chance  is,  the 
judge  will  see  the  "britchin"  broke;  and  then  he  can  at  his 
leisure  bewail  the  fate  of  Locofocoism  as  the  victim  of  mis- 
placed confidence. 

The  serious  lawyer  which  he  has  now  become  can  on  occa- 
sion write  a  very  skilful  letter. 

May  1 2th,  1853.  (To  J.  R.  Stanford.)  I  hope  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  this  letter  will  appear  a  sufficient  apology  to  you 
for  the  liberty  I,  a  total  stranger,  take  in  addressing  you.  The 
persons  here  holding  two  lots  under  a  conveyance  made  by  you, 
as  the  attorney  of  Daniel  M.  Baily,  now  nearly  twenty-two 
years  ago,  are  in  great  danger  of  losing  the  lots,  and  very 
much,  perhaps  all,  is  to  depend  on  the  testimony  you  give  as  to 
whether  you  did  or  did  not  account  to  Baily  for  the  proceeds 


age  43-44]       AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  101 

received  by  you  on  this  sale  of  the  lots.  I  therefore,  as  one 
of  the  counsel,  beg  of  you  to  fully  refresh  your  recollection  by 
any  means  in  your  power  before  the  time  you  may  be  called 
on  to  testify.  If  persons  should  come  about  you  and  show 
a  disposition  to  pump  you  on  the  subject,  it  may  be  no  more 
than  prudent  to  remember  that  it  may  be  possible  they  design 
to  misrepresent  you  and  embarrass  the  real  testimony  you 
may  ultimately  give. 

By  this  time,  though  not  famous,  he  is  sufficiently  known 
for  other  Lincolns  to  be  curious  about  him. 

April  1st.  (To  Jesse  Lincoln.)  On  yesterday  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  receiving  your  letter  of  the  16th  of  March.  From 
what  you  say  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  you  and  I  are  of  the 
same  family.  The  history  of  your  family,  as  you  give  it,  is 
precisely  what  I  have  always  heard,  and  partly  know,  of  my 
uncle  Abraham;  and  the  story  of  his  death  by  the  Indians,  and 
of  Uncle  Mordecai,  then  fourteen  years  old,  killing  one  of  the 
Indians,  is  the  legend  more  strongly  than  all  others  imprinted 
upon  my  mind  and  memory.  I  am  the  son  of  grandfather's 
youngest  son,  Thomas.  I  have  often  heard  my  father  speak 
of  his  uncle  Isaac  residing  at  Watauga  (I  think),  near  where 
the  then  States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee 
join — you  seem  now  to  be  some  hundred  miles  or  so  west  of 
that. 


1854 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  popularly  called  the  "Nebraska 
Bill,"  sponsored  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  is  violently  condemned 
in  both  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties.  Its  opponents  irre- 
spective of  party  are  labelled  "Anti-Nebraska  Men."  They 
speak  of  the  bill  as  "the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise" 

From  1849  to  1854,  both  inclusive,  practised  law  more 
assiduously  than  ever  before.  Always  a  Whig  in  politics;  and 
generally  on  the  Whig  electoral  tickets,  making  active  can- 
vasses. I  was  losing  interest  in  politics  when  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  aroused  me  again. 

During  the  summer  of  1854,  he  ponders  the  problems  of 
government  and  puts  some  of  his  thoughts  on  paper. 

July  1st.  Most  governments  have  been  based,  practically, 
on  the  denial  of  the  equal  rights  of  men,  as  I  have,  in  part, 
stated  them;  ours  began  by  affirming  those  rights.  They  said, 
some  men  are  too  ignorant  and  vicious  to  share  in  government. 
Possibly  so,  said  we ;  and,  by  your  system,  you  would  always 
keep  them  ignorant  and  vicious.  We  proposed  to  give  all  a 
chance ;  and  we  expected  the  weak  to  grow  stronger,  the  ignor- 
ant wiser,  and  all  better  and  happier  together. 

Equality  in  society  alike  beats  inequality,  whether  the  lat- 
ter be  of  the  British  aristocratic  sort  or  of  the  domestic  slavery 
sort.  We  know  Southern  men  declare  that  their  slaves  are 
better  off  than  hired  laborers  amongst  us.     How  little  they 

102 


age  45]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  103 

know  whereof  they  speak!  There  is  no  permanent  class  of 
hired  laborers  amongst  us.  Twenty-five  years  ago  I  was  a 
hired  laborer.  The  hired  laborer  of  yesterday  labors  on  his 
own  account  to-day,  and  will  hire  others  to  labor  for  him 
to-morrow.  Advancement — improvement  in  condition — is  the 
order  of  things  in  a  society  of  equals.  As  labor  is  the  common 
burden  of  our  race,  so  the  effort  of  some  to  shift  their  share 
of  the  burden  onto  the  shoulders  of  others  is  the  great  durable 
curse  of  the  race.  Originally  a  cure  for  trangression  upon  the 
whole  race,  when,  as  by  slavery,  it  is  concentrated  on  a  part 
only,  it  becomes  the  double-refined  curse  of  God  upon  his 
creatures. 

October  3rd.  Stephen  A.  Douglas  having  returned  from 
Washington  to  champion  the  "Nebraska  Bill"  in  Illinois, 
speaks  at  Springfield.    Lincoln  promptly  replies. 

16th.  Douglas  speaks  in  defense  of  the  "Nebraska  Bill"  at 
Peoria,.  Again  Lincoln  replies.  In  this  speech  he  amazes  every 
one  by  the  force  and  acumen  with  which  he  builds  up  a  distinc- 
tive political  attitude  strikingly  his  own.  Here  begins  the 
period  of  his  greatness. 

(Speech  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  in  reply  to  Douglas.)  The 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  the  propriety  of  its 
restoration,  constitute  the  subject  of  what  I  am  about  to  say. 
As  I  desire  to  present  my  own  connected  view  of  this  subject, 
my  remarks  will  not  be  specifically  in  answer  to  Judge  Doug- 
las; yet,  as  I  proceed,  the  main  points  he  has  presented  will 
arise,  and  will  receive  such  respectful  attention  as  I  may  be  able 
to  give  them.  I  wish  further  to  say  that  I  do  not  propose  to 
question  the  patriotism  or  to  assail  the  motives  of  any  man  or 
class  of  men,  but  rather  to  confine  myself  strictly  to  the  naked 
merits  of  the  question.  I  also  wish  to  be  no  less  than  national 
in  all  the  positions  I  may  take,  and  whenever  I  take  ground 


104  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1854 

which  others  have  thought,  or  may  think,  narrow,  sectional, 
and  dangerous  to  the  Union,  I  hope  to  give  a  reason  which  will 
appear  sufficient,  at  least  to  some,  why  I  think  differently. 

And  as  this  subject  is  no  other  than  part  and  parcel  of  the 
larger  general  question  of  domestic  slavery,  I  wish  to  make  and 
to  keep  the  distinction  between  the  existing  institution  and  the 
extension  of  it,  so  broad  and  so  clear  that  no  honest  man  can 
misunderstand  me,  and  no  dishonest  one  successfully  misrep- 
resent me. 

In  1853,  a  bill  to  give  it  (Nebraska)  a  territorial  govern- 
ment passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  and,  in  the  hands  of 
Judge  Douglas,  failed  of  passing  only  for  want  of  time.  This 
bill  contained  no  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Indeed, 
when  it  was  assailed  because  it  did  not  contain  such  repeal, 
Judge  Douglas  defended  it  in  its  existing  form.  On  January 
4,  1854,  Judge  Douglas  introduces  a  new  bill  to  give  Nebraska 
territorial  government.  He  accompanies  this  bill  with  a  report, 
in  which  last  he  expressly  recommends  that  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise shall  neither  be  affirmed  nor  repealed.  Before  long 
the  bill  is  so  modified  as  to  make  two  territories  instead  of  one, 
calling  the  southern  one  Kansas. 

Also,  about  a  month  after  the  introduction  of  the  bill,  on 
the  Judge's  own  motion  it  is  so  amended  as  to  declare  the 
Missouri  Compromise  inoperative  and  void ;  and,  substantially, 
that  the  people  who  go  and  settle  there  may  establish  slavery, 
or  exclude  it,  as  they  may  see  fit.  In  this  shape  the  bill  passed 
both  branches  of  Congress  and  became  a  law. 

This  is  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  fore- 
going history  may  not  be  precisely  accurate  in  every  particular, 
but  I  am  sure  it  is  sufficiently  so  for  all  the  use  I  shall  attempt 
to  make  of  it,  and  in  it  we  have  before  us  the  chief  material 
enabling  us  to  judge  correctly  whether  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  is  right  or  wrong.  I  think,  and  shall  try  to 
show,  that  it  is  wrong — wrong  in  its  direct  effect,  letting  slav- 


age  45]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  105 

ery  into  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  and  wrong  in  its  prospective 
principle,  allowing  it  to  spread  to  every  other  part  of  the  wide 
world  where  men  can  be  found  inclined  to  take  it. 

This  declared  indifference,  but,  as  I  must  think,  covert  real 
zeal,  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  can  not  but  hate.  I  hate  it 
because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slavery  itself.  I  hate  it 
because  it  deprives  our  republican  example  of  its  just  influence 
in  the  world;  enables  the  enemies  of  free  institutions  with 
plausibility  to  taunt  us  as  hypocrites ;  causes  the  real  friends  of 
freedom  to  doubt  our  sincerity ;  and  especially  because  it  forces 
so  many  good  men  among  ourselves  into  an  open  war  with  the 
very  fundamental  principles  of  civil  liberty,  criticizing  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  insisting  that  there  is  no 
right  principle  of  action  but  self-interest. 

Before  proceeding  let  me  say  that  I  think  I  have  no  preju- 
dice against  the  Southern  people.  They  are  just  what  we 
would  be  in  their  situation.  If  slavery  did  not  now  exist  among 
them,  they  would  not  introduce  it.  If  it  did  now  exist  among 
us,  we  should  not  instantly  give  it  up.  This  I  believe  of  the 
masses  North  and  South.  Doubtless  there  are  individuals  on 
both  sides  who  would  not  hold  slaves  under  any  circumstances, 
and  others  who  would  gladly  introduce  slavery  anew  if  it  were 
put  of  existence.  We  know  that  some  Southern  men  do  free 
their  slaves,  go  North  and  become  tip-top  Abolitionists,  while 
some  Northern  ones  go  South  and  become  most  cruel  slave- 
masters. 

When  Southern  people  tell  us  they  are  no  more  responsible 
for  the  origin  of  slavery  than  we  are,  I  acknowledge  the  fact. 
When  it  is  said  that  the  institution  exists,  and  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  get  rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  I  can  under- 
stand and  appreciate  the  saying.  I  surely  will  not  blame  them 
for  not  doing  what  I  should  not  know  how  to  do  myself.  If 
all  earthly  power  were  given  me,  I  should  not  know  what  to 
do  as  to  the  existing  institution.    My  first  impulse  would  be  to 


106  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1854 

free  all  the  slaves,  and  send  them  to  Liberia,  to  their  own  native 
land.  But  a  moment's  reflection  would  convince  me  that  what- 
ever of  high  hope  (as  I  think  there  is)  there  may  be  in  this 
in  the  long  run,  its  sudden  execution  is  impossible.  If  they 
were  all  landed  there  in  a  day,  they  would  all  perish  in  the  next 
ten  days ;  and  there  are  not  surplus  shipping  and  surplus  money 
enough  to  carry  them  there  in  many  times  ten  days.  What 
then  ?  Free  them  all,  and  keep  them  among  us  as  underlings  ? 
Is  it  quite  certain  that  this  betters  their  condition?  I  think  I 
would  not  hold  one  in  slavery  at  any  rate,  yet  the  point  is  not 
clear  enough  for  me  to  denounce  people  upon.  What  next? 
Free  them,  and  make  them  politically  and  socially  our  equals. 
My  own  feelings  will  not  admit  of  this,  and  if  mine  would,  we 
well  know  that  those  of  the  great  mass  of  whites  will  not. 
Whether  this  feeling  accords  with  justice  and  sound  judgment 
is  not  the  sole  question,  if  indeed  it  is  any  part  of  it.  A  univer- 
sal feeling,  whether  well  or  ill  founded,  can  not  be  safely  dis- 
regarded. We  can  not  then  make  them  equals.  It  does  seem 
to  me  that  systems  of  gradual  emancipation  might  be  adopted, 
but  for  their  tardiness  in  this  I  will  not  undertake  to  judge 
our  brethren  of  the  South. 

When  they  remind  us  of  their  constitutional  rights,  I 
acknowledge  them — not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and  fairly;  and 
I  would  give  them  legislation  for  the  reclaiming  of  their  fugi- 
tives which  should  not  in  its  stringency  be  more  likely  to  carry 
a  free  man  into  slavery  than  our  ordinary  criminal  laws  are  to 
hang  an  innocent  one. 

But  all  this,  to  my  judgment,  furnishes  no  more  excuse  for 
permitting  slavery  to  go  into  our  own  free  territory  than  it 
would  for  reviving  the  African  slave-trade  by  law.  The  law 
which  forbids  the  bringing  of  slaves  from  Africa,  and  that 
which  has  so  long  forbidden  the  taking  of  them  into  Nebraska, 
can  hardly  be  distinguished  on  any  moral  principle,  and  the 
repeal  of  the  former  could  find  quite  as  plausible  excuses  as 
that  of  the  latter. 


age  45]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  107 

Whether  slavery  shall  go  into  Nebraska,  or  other  new 
Territories,  is  not  a  matter  of  exclusive  concern  to  the  people 
who  may  go  there.  The  whole  nation  is  interested  that  the 
best  use  shall  be  made  of  these  Territories.  We  want  them 
for  homes  of  free  white  people.  This  they  can  not  be,  to  any 
considerable  extent,  if  slavery  shall  be  planted  within  them. 
Slave  States  are  places  for  poor  white  people  to  remove  from, 
not  to  remove  to.  New  Free  States  are  the  places  for  poor 
people  to  go  to,  and  better  their  condition.  For  this  use  the 
nation  needs  these  Territories. 

Some  men,  mostly  Whigs,  who  condemn  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  nevertheless  hesitate  to  go  for  its  restor- 
ation, lest  they  be  thrown  in  company  with  the  Abolitionists. 
Will  they  allow  me,  as  an  old  Whig,  to  tell  them,  good- 
humoredly,  that  I  think  this  is  very  silly?  Stand  with  anybody 
that  stands  right.  Stand  with  him  while  he  is  right,  and  part 
with  him  when  he  goes  wrong.  Stand  with  the  Abolitionist 
in  restoring  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  stand  against  him 
when  he  attempts  to  repeal  the  fugitive-slave  law.  In  the 
latter  case  you  stand  with  the  Southern  disunionist.  What  of 
that  ?  you  are  still  right.  In  both  cases  you  are  right.  In  both 
cases  you  expose  the  dangerous  extremes.  In  both  you  stand 
on  middle  ground,  and  hold  the  ship  level  and  steady.  In  both 
you  are  national.  This  is  the  good  old  Whig  ground.  To 
desert  such  ground  because  of  any  company,  is  to  be  less  than 
a  Whig — less  than  a  man — less  than  an  American. 

Fellow-countrymen,  Americans,  South  as  well  as  North, 
shall  we  make  no  effort  to  arrest  this?  Already  the  liberal 
party  throughout  the  world  express  the  apprehension  "that  the 
one  retrograde  institution  in  America  is  undermining  the 
principles  of  progress,  and  fatally  violating  the  noblest  political 
system  the  world  ever  saw."  This  is  not  the  taunt  of  enemies, 
but  the  warning  of  friends.  Is  it  quite  safe  to  disregard  it — to 
despise  it  ?    Is  there  no  danger  to  liberty  itself  in  disregarding 


108  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1854 

the  earliest  practise  and  first  precept  of  our  ancient  faith?  In 
our  greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  let  us  beware 
lest  we  "cancel  and  tear  in  pieces"  even  the  white  man's  char- 
ter of  freedom.* 

Immense  impression  made  on  "Anti-Nebraska  Men"  irre- 
spective of  party,  by  Lincoln's  replies  to  Douglas.  He  decides 
to  become  a  candidate  for  election  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
encouraged  to  do  so  because  the  "Anti-Nebraska"  Democrats 
put  up  a  candidate,  Lyman  Trumbull,  in  opposition  to  the 
regular  Democrat,  James  Shields — now  a  general  because  of 
service  in  the  Mexican  War. 

November  10th.  (To  Charles  Hoyt.)  You  used  to  ex- 
press a  good  deal  of  partiality  for  me,  and  if  you  are  still  so, 
now  is  the  time.  Some  friends  here  are  really  for  me,  for 
the  U.  S.  Senate,  and  I  should  be  very  grateful  if  you  could 
make  a  mark  for  me  among  your  members.  Please  write  me 
at  all  events  giving  me  the  names,  post-offices,  and  "political 
position"  of  members  round  about  you.  Direct  to  Spring- 
field. 

Let  this  be  confidential. 

iyth.  Newly  organized  Republican  Party  attempts  to  draw 
Lincoln  into  its  membership,  by  inviting  him  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  their  State  Central  Committee. 

2fth.  (To  I.  Codding.)  Your  note  of  the  13th  request- 
ing my  attendance  on  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee, 
on  the  17th  instant  at  Chicago,  was,  owing  to  my  absence  from 
home,  received  on  the  evening  of  that  day  (17th)  only.  While 
I  have  pen  in  hand  allow  me  to  say  I  have  been  perplexed  some 
to  understand  why  my  name  was  placed  on  that  Committee. 


*This  speech,  in  some  respects  the  most  notable  event  of  Lincoln's  politi- 
cal life,  strictly  speaking,  is  in  its  entirety  an  elaborate  essay.  See  Biographi- 
cal Edition,  IV,  190,  etc.;  Putnam  Edition,  II,  178,  etc. 


age  451  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  109 

I  was  not  consulted  on  the  subject,  nor  was  I  appraised  of  the 
appointment  until  I  discovered  it  by  accident  two  or  three 
weeks  afterward.  I  suppose  my  opposition  to  the  principle  of 
slavery  is  as  strong  as  that  gf  any  member  of  the  Republican 
party ;  but  I  have  also  supposed  that  the  extent  to  which  I  feel 
authorized  to  carry  that  opposition,  practically,  was  not  at 
all  satisfactory  to  that  party.  The  leading  men  who  organized 
that  party  were  present  on  the  4th  of  October  at  the  discussion 
between  Douglas,  and  myself  at  Springfield,  and  had  full  op- 
portunity to  not  misunderstand  my  position.  Do  I  misunder- 
stand them?     Please  write  and  inform  me. 

Lincoln  continues  in  the  race  for  the  Senatorship  as  a  Whig. 

2jih.  (To  T.  J.  Henderson.)  It  has  come  round  that 
a  Whig  may,  by  possibility,  be  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  I  want  the  chance  of  being  the  man.  You 
are  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  have  a  vote  to  give. 
Think  it  over,  and  see  whether  you  can  do  better  than  go  for 
me.     Write  me  at  all  events;  and  let  this  be  confidential. 

December  1st.  (To  Joseph  Gillespie.)  I  have  really  got 
it  into  my  head  to  try  to  be  United  States  Senator,  and,  if  I 
could  have  your  support,  my  chance  would  be  reasonably  good. 
But  I  know,  and  acknowledge,  that  you  have  as  just  claims  to 
the  place  as  I  have  and  therefore  I  can  not  ask  you  to  yield  to 
me,  if  you  are  thinking  of  becoming  a  candidate  yourself.  If, 
however,  you  are  not,  then  I  should  like  to  be  remembered 
affectionately  by  you;  and  also  to  have  you  make  a  mark  for 
me  with  the  Anti-Nebraska  members,  down  your  way. 

If  you  know,  and  have  no  objection  to  tell,  let  me  know 
whether  Trumbull  intends  to  make  a  push.  If  he  does,  I  sup- 
pose the  two  men  in  St.  Clair,  the  one,  or  both,  in  Madison, 
will  be  for  him.  We  have  the  Legislature,  clearly  enough,  on 
joint  ballot,  but  the  Senate  is  very  close,  and  Cullom  told  me 


no  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1854 

to-day  that  the  Nebraska  men  will  stave  off  the  election,  if 
they  can.  Even  if  we  get  into  joint  vote,  we  shall  have  diffi- 
culty to  unite  our  forces.  Please  write  me,  and  let  this  be 
confidential. 

14th.  (To  E.  A.  Washbourn. )  So  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
there  must  be  something  wrong  about  United  States  Senator 
at  Chicago.  My  most  intimate  friends  there  do  not  answer 
my  letters,  and  I  can  not  get  a  word  from  them.  Wentworth 
has  a  knack  of  knowing  things  better  than  most  men.  I  wish 
you  would  pump  him,  and  write  me  what  you  get  from  him. 
Please  do  this  as  soon  as  you  can,  as  the  time  is  growing  short. 
Don't  let  any  one  know  I  have  written  you  this ;  for  there  may 
be  those  opposed  to  me  nearer  about  you  than  you  think. 

15th.  We  shall  have  a  terrible  struggle  with  our  adver- 
saries. They  are  desperate  and  bent  on  desperate  deeds.  I 
accidentally  learned  of  one  of  the  leaders  here  writing  to  a 
member  south  of  here,  in  about  the  following  language : 

"We  are  beaten.  They  have  a  clear  majority  of  at  least 
nine,  on  joint  ballot.  They  outnumber  us,  but  we  must  out- 
manage  them.  Douglas  must  be  sustained.  We  must  elect 
the  speaker;  and  we  must  elect  a  Nebraska*  United  States 
Senator,  or  elect  none  at  all." 

Similar  letters,  no  doubt,  are  written  to  every  Nebraska 
member.  Be  considering  how  we  can  best  meet,  and  foil, 
and  beat  them. 


*The  term  used  for  supporters  of  the  bill  fathered  by  Douglas. 


1855 

January  6th.  (To  E.  B.  Washburne.)  I  telegraphed  you 
as  to  the  organization  of  the  two  Houses.  T.  J.  Turner  elected 
Speaker,  40 to  24;  House  not  full;  Doctor  Richmond  of  Schuy- 
ler was  his  opponent;  Anti-Nebraska  also  elected  all  the  other 
officers  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  the  Senate  Anti- 
Nebraska  elected  George  T.  Brown,  of  the  Alton  Courier,  sec- 
retary; and  Doctor  Ray,  of  the  Galena  Jeffersonian,  one  of  the 
clerks.  In  fact  they  elected  all  the  officers,  but  some  of  them 
were  Nebraska  men  elected  over  the  regular  Nebraska  nom- 
inees. It  is  said  that  by  this  they  get  one  or  two  Nebraska 
senators  to  go  for  bringing  on  the  senatorial  election.  I  can 
not  vouch  for  this.  As  to  the  senatorial  election,  I  think  very 
little  more  is  known  than  was  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Legislature.  Besides  the  ten  or  a  dozen  on  our  side  who  are 
willing  to  be  known  as  candidates,  I  think  there  are  fifty 
secretly  watching  for  a  chance.  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  much 
advantage  to  have  the  largest  number  of  votes  at  the  start. 
If  I  did  know  this  to  be  an  advantage,  I  should  feel  better,  for 
I  can  not  doubt  but  I  have  more  committals  than  any  other 
man. 

The  "  Anti-N  ebraska  Men"  discern  that  the  "Nebraska 
Men"  who  are  supporting  Douglas  and  his  policies  are  work- 
ing secretly  for  a  combination  of  all  "Nebraska  Men"  Whigs 
and  Democrats,  to  elect  as  Senator  the  Democratic  Governor, 
Joel  A.  Matteson.  They  strive  in  vain  to  head  off  this  move- 
ment  toivard  a  "Nebraska"  coalition. 

in 


ii2  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1855 

February  pth.  (To  E.  B.  Washburne.)  The  agony  is 
over  at  last,  and  the  result  you  doubtless  know.  I  write  this 
only  to  give  you  some  particulars  to  explain  what  might  ap- 
pear difficult  of  understanding.  I  began  with  44  votes, 
Shields  41,  and  Trumbull  5 — yet  Trumbull  was  elected.  In 
fact,  47  different  members  voted  for  me — getting  three  new 
ones  on  the  second  ballot,  and  losing  four  old  ones.  How 
came  my  47  to  yield  to  Trumbull's  5  ?  It  was  Governor  Mat- 
teson's  work.  He  has  been  secretly  a  candidate  ever  since 
(before,  even)  the  fall  election.  All  the  members  round 
about  the  canal  were  Anti-Nebraska  but  were  nevertheless 
nearly  all  Democrats  and  old  personal  friends  of  his.  His 
plan  was  to  privately  impress  them  with  the  belief  that  he 
was  as  good  Anti-Nebraska  as  any  one  else — at  least  could  be 
secured  to  be  so  by  instructions,  which  could  be  easily  passed. 
In  this  way  he  got  from  four  to  six  of  that  sort  of  men  to  really 
prefer  his  election  to  that  of  any  other  man — all  sub  rosa,  of 
course.  One  notable  instance  of  this  sort  was  with  Mr.  Strunk 
of  Kankakee.  At  the  beginning  of  the  session  he  came  a 
volunteer  to  tell  me  he  was  for  me  and  would  walk  a  hundred 
miles  to  elect  me ;  but  lo !  it  was  not  long  before  he  leaked  it 
out  that  he  was  going  for  me  the  first  few  ballots  and  then 
for  Governor  Matteson. 

The  Nebraska  men,  of  course,  were  not  for  Matteson;  but 
when  they  found  they  could  elect  no  avowed  Nebraska  man, 
they  tardily  determined  to  let  him  get  whomever  of  our  men 
he  could,  by  whatever  means  he  could,  and  ask  him  no  ques- 
tions. In  the  meantime  Osgood,  Don  Morrison,  and  Trapp  of 
St.  Clair  had  openly  gone  over  from  us.  With  the  united 
Nebraska  force  and  their  recruits,  open  and  covert,  it  gave 
Matteson  more  than  enough  to  elect  him.  We  saw  into  it 
plainly  ten  days  ago,  but  with  every  possible  effort  could  not 
head  it  off.  All  that  remained  of  the  Anti-Nebraska  force, 
excepting  Judd,  Cook,  Palmer,  Baker  and  Allen  of  Madison, 


age  45]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  113 

and  two  or  three  of  the  secret  Matteson  men,  would  go  into 
caucus,  and  I  could  get  the  nomination  of  that  caucus.  But 
the  three  senators  and  one  of  the  two  representatives  above 
named  "could  never  vote  for  a  Whig,"  and  this  incensed  some 
twenty  Whigs  to  "think"  they  would  never  vote  for  the  man 
of  the  five.  So  we  stood,  and  so  we  went  into  the  fight  yes- 
terday— the  Nebraska  men  very  confident  of  the  election  of 
Matteson,  though  denying  that  he  was  a  candidate,  and  we 
very  much  believing  also  that  they  would  elect  him.  But 
they  wanted  first  to  make  a  show  of  good  faith  to  Shields  by 
voting  for  him  a  few  times,  and  our  secret  Matteson  men  also 
wanted  to  make  a  show  of  good  faith  by  voting  with  us  a 
few  times.  So  we  led  off.  On  the  seventh  ballot,  I  think,  the 
signal  was  given  to  the  Nebraska  men  to  turn  to  Matteson, 
which  they  acted  on  to  a  man,  with  one  exception,  my  old 
friend  Strunk  going  with  them,  giving  him  44  votes. 

Next  ballot  the  remaining  Nebraska  man  and  one  pre- 
tended Anti  went  over  to  him,  giving  him  46.  The  next, 
still  another,  giving  him  47,  wanting  only  three  of  an  election. 
In  the  meantime  our  friends,  with  a  view  of  detaining  our  ex- 
pected bolters,  had  been  turning  from  me  to  Trumbull  till  he 
had  risen  to  35  and  I  had  been  reduced  to  15.  These  would 
never  desert  me  except  by  my  direction ;  but  I  became  satis- 
fied that  if  we  could  prevent  Matteson's  election  one  or  two 
ballots  more,  we  could  not  possibly  do  so  a  single  ballot  after 
my  friends  should  begin  to  return  to  me  from  Trumbull.  So 
I  determined  to  strike  at  once,  and  accordingly  advised  my 
remaining  friends  to  go  for  him,  which  they  did  and  elected 
him  on  the  tenth  ballot. 

Such  is  the  way  the  thing  was  done.  I  think  you  would 
have  done  the  same  under  the  circumstances;  though  Judge 
Davis,  who  came  down  this  morning,  declared  he  never  would 
have  consented  to  the  forty-seven  men  being  controlled  by  the 
five.     I  regret  my  defeat  moderately,  but  I  am  not  nervous 


ii4  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1855 

about  it.  I  could  have  headed  off  every  combination  and  been 
elected — had  it  not  been  for  Matteson's  double  game — and  his 
defeat  now  gives  me  more  pleasure  than  my  own  gives  me 
pain.  On  the  whole,  it  is  perhaps  as  well  for  our  general  cause 
that  Trumbull  is  elected.  The  Nebraska  men  confess  that  they 
hate  it  worse  than  anything  that  could  have  happened.  It  is  a 
great  consolation  to  see  them  worse  whipped  than  I  am.  I  tell 
them  it  is  their  own  fault — that  they  had  abundant  opportunity 
to  choose  between  him  and  me,  which  they  declined,  and  in- 
stead forced  it  on  me  to  decide  between  him  and  Matteson. 

Accepting  defeat  Lincoln  tarns  back  to  his  profession. 

March  10th.  (To  Sanford,  Porter  and  Striker.)  Yours 
of  the  5th  is  received,  as  also  was  that  of  15th  December  last, 
inclosing  bond  of  Clift  to  Pray.  When  I  received  the  bond 
I  was  dabbling  in  politics,  and  of  course  neglecting  business. 
Having  since  been  beaten  out  I  have  gone  to  work  again. 

As  I  do  not  practise  in  Rushville  I  to-day  open  a  corre- 
spondence with  Henry  E.  Dummer,  Esq.,  of  Beardstown,  Ills., 
with  the  view  of  getting  the  job  into  his  hands.  He  is  a  good 
man  if  he  will  undertake  it.  Write  me  whether  I  shall  do  this 
or  return  the  bond  to  you. 

He  is  preoccupied  with  the  new  issue  over  slavery  and  con- 
stantly seeking  to  find  ways  of  fighting  the  "Nebraska  Men." 

23rd.  (To  A.  B.  Moreau.)  Stranger  though  I  am,  per- 
sonally, being  a  brother  in  the  faith,  I  venture  to  write  to  you. 
Yates  can  not  come  to  your  court  next  week.  He  is  obliged 
to  be  at  Pike  court  where  he  has  a  case,  with  a  fee  of  five 
hundred  dollars,  two  hundred  dollars  already  paid.  To  neg- 
lect it  would  be  unjust  to  himself,  and  dishonest  to  his  client. 
Harris  will  be  with  you,  head  up  tail  up,  for  Nebraska.    You 


age  46]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  115 

must  have  some  one  to  make  an  anti-Nebraska  speech.  Pal- 
mer is  the  best,  if  you  can  get  him,  I  think.  Jo.  Gillespie,  if 
you  can  not  get  Palmer,  and  somebody  anyhow,  if  you  can  get 
neither.     But  press  Palmer  hard. 

August  nth.  Know  Nothingism  has  not  yet  entirely 
tumbled  to  pieces.  Nay,  it  is  even  a  little  encouraged  by  the  late 
election  in  Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  Alabama.  Until  we  can 
get  the  elements  of  this  organization  there  is  not  sufficient 
material  to  successfully  combat  the  Nebraska  democracy  with. 
We  can  not  get  them  so  long  as  they  cling  to  a  hope  of  success 
under  their  own  organization ;  and  I  fear  an  open  push  by  us 
now  may  offend  them  and  tend  to  prevent  our  ever  getting 
them.  About  us  here,  they  are  mostly  my  old  political  and 
personal  friends,  and  I  have  hoped  this  organization  would  die 
out  without  the  painful  necessity  of  my  taking  an  open  stand 
against  them.  Of  their  principles  I  think  little  better  than  I 
do  of  those  of  the  slavery  extensionists.  Indeed  I  do  not 
perceive  how  any  one  professing  to  be  sensitive  to  the  wrongs 
of  the  negro,  can  join  in  a  league  to  degrade  a  class  of  white 
men.  I  have  no  objection  to  "fuse"  with  any  body  provided 
I  can  fuse  on  grounds  which  I  think  right.  And  I  believe 
the  opponents  of  slavery  extension  could  now  do  this  if  it 
were  not  for  the  K.  N.ism.  In  many  speeches  last  summer 
I  advised  those  who  did  me  the  honor  of  a  hearing  to  "stand 
with"  any  body  who  stands  right,  and  I  am  still  quite  willing 
to  follow  my  own  advice. 

His  strong  literary  bent  leads  him  to  strive  constantly  after 
phrases  to  express  the  new  issue. 

15th.  On  the  question  of  liberty  as  a  principle,  we  are  not 
what  we  have  been.  When  we  were  the  political  slaves  of  King 
George,  and  wanted  to  be  free,  we  called  the  maxim  that  "all 
men  are  created  equal"  a  self-evident  truth,  but  now  when  we 


n6  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1855 

have  grown  fat,  and  have  lost  all  dread  of  being  slaves  our- 
selves, we  have  become  so  greedy  to  be  master  that  we  call  the 
same  maxim  "a  self-evident  lie."  The  Fourth  of  July  has  not 
quite  dwindled  away ;  it  is  still  a  great  day — for  burning  fire- 
crackers ! ! ! 

That  spirit  which  desired  the  peaceful  extinction  of  slavery 
has  itself  become  extinct  with  the  occasion  and  the  men  of  the 
Revolution.  Under  the  impulse  of  that  occasion,  nearly  half 
the  States  adopted  systems  of  emancipation  at  once,  and  it  is 
a  significant  fact  that  not  a  single  State  has  done  the  like 
since.  So  far  as  peaceful  voluntary  emancipation  is  concerned, 
the  condition  of  the  negro  slave  in  America,  scarcely  less  ter- 
rible to  the  contemplation  of  a  free  mind,  is  now  as  fixed  and 
hopeless  of  change  for  the  better,  as  that  of  the  lost  souls  of 
the  finally  impenitent.  The  Autocrat  of  all  the  Russias  will 
resign  his  crown  and  proclaim  his  subjects  free  republicans 
sooner  than  will  our  American  masters  voluntarily  give  up 
their  slaves. 

Our  political  problem  now  is,  "Can  we  as  a  nation  continue 
together  permanently — forever — half  slave  and  half  free?"* 
The  problem  is  too  mighty  for  me — may  God,  in  His  mercy, 
superintend  the  solution. 

24th.  (To  Joshua  F.  Speed.)  You  know  what  a  poor  cor- 
respondent I  am.  Ever  since  I  received  your  very  agreeable 
letter  of  the  226.  of  May  I  have  been  intending  to  write  you  an 
answer  to  it.  You  suggest  that  in  political  action  you  and  I 
would  differ.  I  suppose  we  would;  not  quite  as  much,  how- 
ever, as  you  may  think.  You  know  I  dislike  slavery,  and  you 
fully  admit  the  abstract  wrong  of  it.  So  far  there  is  no  cause 
of  difference.  But  you  say  that  sooner  than  yield  your  legal 
right  to  the  slave — especially  at  the  bidding  of  those  who  are 
not  themselves  interested — you  would  see  the  Union  dissolved. 
I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  is  bidding  you  yield  that  right; 


See  p.   137  for  the  historic  use  of  this  phrase. 


age  46]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  117 

very  certainly  I  am  not.  I  leave  that  matter  entirely  to  your- 
self. I  also  acknowledge  your  rights  and  my  obligations  under 
the  Constitution  in  regard  to  your  slaves.  I  confess  I  hate  to 
see  the  poor  creatures  hunted  down  and  caught  and  carried 
back  to  their  stripes  and  unrequited  toil ;  but  I  bite  my  lips  and 
keep  quiet.  In  1841  you  and  I  had  together  a  tedious  low- 
water  trip  on  a  steamboat  from  Louisville  to  St.  Louis.  You 
may  remember,  as  I  well  do,  that  from  Louisville  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Ohio  there  were  on  board  ten  or  a  dozen  slaves  shackled 
together  with  irons.  That  sight  was  a  continued  torment  to 
me,  and  I  see  something  like  it  every  time  I  touch  the  Ohio  or 
any  other  slave  border.  It  is  not  fair  for  you  to  assume  that  I 
have  no  interest  in  a  thing  which  has,  and  continually  exercises, 
the  power  of  making  me  miserable.  You  ought  rather  to 
appreciate  how  much  the  great  body  of  the  Northern  people  do 
crucify  their  feelings,  in  order  to  maintain  their  loyalty  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union. 

You  say,  that,  if  Kansas  fairly  votes  herself  a  free  State, 
as  a  Christian  you  will  rejoice  at  it.  All  decent  slaveholders 
talk  that  way;  and  I  do  not  doubt  their  candor.  But  they 
never  vote  that  way.  Although  in  a  private  letter  or  conversa- 
tion you  will  express  your  preference  that  Kansas  shall  be  free, 
you  would  vote  for  no  man  for  Congress  who  would  say  the 
same  thing  publicly.  No  such  man  could  be  elected  from  any 
district  in  a  slave  State.  You  think  Stringfellow  &  Co.  ought 
to  be  hung;  and  yet,  at  the  next  Presidential  election  you  will 
vote  for  the  exacj:  type  and  representative  of  Stringfellow. 
The  slave-breeders  and  slave-traders  are  a  small,  odious,  and 
detested  class  among  you;  and  yet  in  politics  they  dictate  the 
course  of  all  of  you,  and  are  as  completely  your  masters  as  you 
are  the  master  of  your  own  negroes.  You  inquire  where  I 
now  stand.  That  is  a  disputed  point.  I  think  I  am  a  Whig; 
but  others  say  there  are  no  Whigs,  and  that  I  am  an  Abolition- 
ist.    When  I  was  at  Washington,  I  voted  for  the  Wilmot 


n8  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1855 

proviso  as  good  as  forty  times;  and  I  never  heard  of  any  one 
attempting  to  unwhig  me  for  that.  I  now  do  no  more  than 
oppose  the  extension  of  slavery.  I  am  not  a  Know-nothing; 
that  is  certain.  How  could  I  be?  How  can  any  one  who 
abhors  the  oppression  of  negroes  be  in  favor  of  degrading 
classes  of  white  people?  Our  progress  in  degeneracy  appears 
to  be  pretty  rapid.  As  a  nation  we  began  by  declaring  that 
"all  men  are  created  equal."  We  now  practically  read  it  "all 
men  are  created  equal,  except  negroes.,,  When  the  Know- 
nothings  get  control,  it  will  read  "all  men  are  created  equal, 
except  negroes  and  foreigners  and  Catholics."  When  it  comes 
to  this,  I  shall  prefer  emigrating  to  some  country  where  they 
make  no  pretense  of  loving  liberty — to  Russia,  for  instance, 
where  despotism  can  be  taken  pure,  and  without  the  base  alloy 
of  hypocrisy. 

September.  Acts  as  associate  counsel  in  an  important  patent 
suit  brought  by  Cyrus  H.  McCormick.  Case  is  tried  at  Cin- 
cinnati. Lincoln  is  treated  with  condescending  incivility  by 
the  senior  counsel,  Edwin  M.  Stanton. 

(To  Ralph  Emerson  after  the  trial  is  over.)  I  am  going 
home  to  study  law. 

(Emerson:  You  stand  at  the  head  of  the  bar  in  Illinois 
now.) 

Oh,  yes,  I  do  occupy  a  good  position  there,  and  I  think  that 
I  can  get  along  with  the  way  things  are  done  there  now.  But 
these  college-trained  men,  who  have  devoted  their  whole  lives 
to  study,  are  coming  West,  don't  you  see?  And  they  study 
their  cases  as  we  never  do.  They  have  got  as  far  as  Cincinnati 
now.  They  will  soon  be  in  Illinois.  I  am  going  home  to  study 
law.  I  am  as  good  as  any  of  them,  and  when  they  get  out  to 
Illinois  I  will  be  ready  for  them. 

November  $th.     (To  Isham  Reaves.)    I  am  from  home  too 


age  46]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  119 

much  of  my  time,  for  a  young  man  to  read  law  with  me 
advantageously.  If  you  are  resolutely  determined  to  make  a 
lawyer  of  yourself,  the  thing  is  more  than  half  done  already. 
It  is  but  a  small  matter  whether  you  read  with  any  body  or 
not.  I  did  not  read  with  any  one.  Get  the  books,  and  read 
and  study  them  till  you  understand  them  in  their  principal  fea- 
tures; and  that  is  the  main  thing.  It  is  of  no  consequence  to 
be  in  a  large  town  while  you  are  reading.  I  read  at  New 
Salem,  which  never  had  three  hundred  people  living  in  it.  The 
books,  and  your  capacity  for  understanding  them,  are  just  the 
same  in  all  places.  Mr.  Dummer  is  a  very  clever  man  and  an 
excellent  lawyer  (much  better  than  I,  in  law-learning)  ;  and  I 
have  no  doubt  he  will  cheerfully  tell  you  what  books  to  read, 
and  also  loan  you  the  books. 

Always  bear  in  mind  that  your  own  resolution  to  succeed, 
is  more  important  than  any  other  one  thing. 

December  15th. 

THE  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  RAILROAD  COMPANY, 
To  A.  LINCOLN,  Dr. 

To  professional  services  in  the  case  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  against  the  County 
of  McLean,  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  at  December  term,  1855 $5,000.00 

We,  the  undersigned  members  of  the  Illinois  Bar,  under- 
standing that  the  above  entitled  cause  was  twice  argued  in  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  that  the  judgment  therein  decided  the 
question  of  the  claim  of  counties  and  other  minor  municipal 
corporations  to  the  property  of  said  Railroad  company,  and 
settled  said  question  against  said  claim  and  in  favor  of  said 
railroad  company,  are  of  opinion  the  sum  above  charged  as  a 
fee  is  not  unreasonable. 

Grant  Goodrich,  N.  H.  Purple, 

N.  B.  Judd,  O.  H.  Browning, 

Archibald   Williams,  R.  S.  Blackwell. 


1856 

Law  and  politics  continue  to  divide  his  attention.  He  is 
still  holding  off  from  the  new  Republican  party,  deliberating 
what  to  do.  Meanwhile  the  violence  in  Kansas  on  both  sides 
receives  his  condemnation.  He  speaks  earnestly  on  the  sub- 
ject addressing  a  little  association  of  abolitionists  formed  to 
oppose  the  government  in  Kansas. 

Friends,  I  agree  with  you  in  Providence;  but  I  believe  in 
the  providence  of  most  men,  the  largest  purse,  and  the  longest 
cannon.  You  are  in  the  minority — in  a  sad  minority ;  and  you 
can  not  hope  to  succeed,  reasoning  from  all  human  experience. 
You  would  rebel  against  the  Government,  and  redden  your 
hands  in  the  blood  of  your  countrymen.  If  you  are  in  the 
minority,  as  you  are,  you  cant  succeed.  I  say  again  and  again, 
against  the  Government,  with  a  great  majority  of  its  best 
citizens  backing  it,  and  when  they  have  the  most  men,  the 
longest  purse,  and  the  biggest  cannon,  you  can  not  succeed.  If 
you  have  the  majority,  as  some  of  you  say  you  have,  you  can 
succeed  with  the  ballot,  throwing  away  the  bullet.  You  can 
peacefully,  then,  redeem  the  Government,  and  preserve  the  lib- 
erties of  mankind,  through  your  votes  and  voice  and  moral 
influence.  Let  there  be  peace.  In  a  democracy,  where  the 
majority  rule  by  the  ballot  through  the  forms  of  law,  these 
physical  rebellions  and  bloody  resistances  are  radically  wrong, 
unconstitutional,  and  are  treason.  Better  bear  the  ills  you  have 
than  fly  to  those  you  know  not  of.     Our  own  Declaration  of 

120 


age  47]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  121 

Independence  says,  that  governments  long  established,  for 
trivial  causes  should  not  be  resisted.  Revolutionize  through 
the  ballot-box,  and  restore  the  Government  once  more  to  the 
affections  and  hearts  of  men,  by  making  it  express,  as  it  was 
intended  to  do,  the  highest  spirit  of  justics  and  liberty.  Your 
attempt,  if  there  be  such,  to  resist  the  laws  of  Kansas  by 
force,  is  criminal  and  wicked ;  and  all  your  feeble  attempts  will 
be  follies,  and  end  in  bringing  sorrow  on  your  heads,  and  ruin 
the  cause  you  would  freely  die  to  preserve ! 

Still,  his  humor  does  not  desert  him  despite  the  evil  times. 

February  13th.  (Request  for  renewal  of  pass  over  Chicago 
and  Alton  Railroad.)  Says  Tom  to  John,  "Here's  your  rotten 
wheelbarrow.  I've  broke  it  usin'  on  it.  I  wish  you  would 
mend  it,  'case  I  shall  want  to  borrow  it  this  afternoon."  Act- 
ing on  this  as  a  precedent  I  say,  "Here's  your  old  'chalked  hat,' 
I  wish  you  would  take  it  and  send  me  a  new  one ;  'case  I  shall 
want  to  use  it  the  first  of  March." 

2 1st.  (To  George  P.  Floyd.)  I  have  just  received  yours 
of  the  1 6th,  with  check  on  Flagg  &  Savage  for  twenty- five 
dollars.  You  must  think  I  am  a  high-priced  man.  You  are 
too  liberal  with  your  money. 

Fifteen  dollars  is  enough  for  the  job.  I  send  you  a  receipt 
for  fifteen  dollars  and  return  you  a  ten-dollar  bill. 

May  29th.  The  "Anti-Nebraska  Men"  in  both  the  old 
parties  gradually  come  together  in  the  new  Republican  party. 
Trumbull  leads  Anti-Nebraska  Democrats  into  the  new  organ- 
ization. Lincoln,  after  long  hesitation  writes  Herndon,  who 
is  hot  for  the  new  party,  "All  right.  Go  ahead.  Will  meet  you 
radicals  and  all."  Accepts  election  as  member  of  State  Repub- 
lican Convention.  Commits  himself  to  new  party  in  a  famous, 
unrecorded  address  known  as  "The  Lost  Speech" 


122  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1856 

June  i?th.  Republican  National  Convention  at  Phila- 
delphia gives  Lincoln  one  hundred  ten  votes  on  the  informal 
ballot  for  vice-president.  William  L.  Dayton  is  finally  chosen. 
John  C.  Fremont  nominated  for  President. 

(On  receiving  news  of  the  vote  for  him  at  Philadelphia.)  I 
reckon  it's  not  me.  There's  another  Lincoln  down  in  Massa- 
chusetts.    I've  an  idea  he's  the  one. 

27th.  (To  John  Van  Dyke.)  Allow  me  to  thank  you  for 
your  kind  notice  of  me  in  the  Philadelphia  Convention. 

When  you  meet  Judge  Dayton  present  my  respects,  and 
tell  him  I  think  him  a  far  better  man  than  I  for  the  position 
he  is  in,  and  that  I  shall  support  both  him  and  Colonel  Fremont 
most  cordially. 

July  12th.  I  am  superstitious.  I  have  scarcely  known  a 
party  preceding  an  election  to  call  in  help  from  the  neighboring 
States,  but  they  lost  the  State.  Last  fall,  our  friends  had 
Wade,  of  Ohio,  and  others,  in  Maine ;  and  they  lost  the  State. 
Last  spring  our  adversaries  had  New  Hampshire  full  of  South 
Carolinians,  and  they  lost  the  State.  And  so,  generally,  it 
seems  to  stir  up  more  enemies  than  friends. 

Meanwhile,  Fillmore  is  nominated  for  President  by  the 
remnant  of  the  Whig  party  in  conjunction  with  the  temporary 
''American"  (Know-nothing)  party. 

August  1st.  (Speech  at  Galena.)  You  [Democrats] 
further  charge  us  with  being  disunionists.  If  you  mean  that 
it  is  our  aim  to  dissolve  the  Union,  I  for  myself  answer  that 
it  is  untrue ;  for  those  who  act  with  me  I  answer  that  it  is  un- 
true. Llave  you  heard  us  assert  that  as  our  aim?  Do  you 
really  believe  that  such  is  our  aim?  Do  you  find  it  in  our 
platform,  our  speeches,  our  conventions,  or  anywhere?  If  not, 
withdraw  the  charge. 


age  47]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  123 

But  you  may  say  that,  though  it  is  not  our  aim,  it  will  be  the 
result  if  we  succeed,  and  that  we  are  therefore  disunionists  in 
fact.  This  is  a  grave  charge  you  make  against  us,  and  we 
certainly  have  a  right  to  demand  that  you  specify  in  what  way 
we  are  to  dissolve  the  Union.     How  are  we  to  effect  this? 

The  only  specification  offered  is  volunteered  by  Mr.  Fill- 
more in  his  Albany  speech.  His  charge  is  that  if  we  elect  a 
President  and  Vice-President  both  from  the  free  States  it  will 
dissolve  the  Union.    This  is  open  folly   .    .    . 

No  other  specification  is  made,  and  the  only  one  that  could 
be  made  is  that  the  restoration  of  the  restriction  of  1820, 
making  the  United  States  territory  free  territory,  would  dis- 
solve the  Union.  Gentlemen,  it  will  require  a  decided  ma- 
jority to  pass  such  an  act.  We,  the  majority,  being  able  con- 
stitutionally to  do  all  that  we  purpose,  would  have  no  desire 
to  dissolve  the  Union.  Do  you  say  that  such  restriction  of 
slavery  would  be  unconstitutional,  and  that  some  of  the  States 
would  not  submit  to  its  enforcement?  I  grant  you  that  an 
unconstitutional  act  is  not  a  law ;  but  I  do  not  ask  and  will  not 
take  your  construction  of  the  Constitution.  The  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  is  the  tribunal  to  decide  such  a  ques- 
tion, and  we  will  submit  to  its  decisions;  and  if  you  do  also, 
there  will  be  an  end  of  the  matter.  Will  you?  If  not,  who 
are  the  disunionists — you  or  we?  Wre,  the  majority,  would  not 
strive  to  dissolve  the  Union;  and  if  any  attempt  is  made,  it 
must  be  by  you,  who  so  loudly  stigmatize  us  as  disunionists. 
But  the  Union,  in  any  event,  will  not  be  dissolved.  We  don't 
want  to  dissolve  it,  and  if  you  attempt  it,  we  won't  let  you. 
With  the  purse  and  sword,  the  army  and  navy  and  treasury, 
in  our  hands  and  at  our  command,  you  could  not  do  it.  This 
government  would  be  very  weak  indeed  if  a  majority  with  a 
disciplined  army  and  navy  and  a  well-filled  treasury  could  not 
preserve  itself  when  attacked  by  an  unarmed,  undisciplined,  un- 
organized minority.     All  this  talk  about  dissolution  of  the 


124  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1856 

Union  is  humbug,  nothing  but  folly.  We  do  not  want  to 
dissolve  the  Union;  you  shall  not. 

nth.  I  have  just  returned  from  speaking  at  Paris  and 
Grandview  in  Edgar  County — &  Charleston  and  Shelbyville, 
in  Coles  and  Shelby  Counties.  Our  whole  trouble  along  there 
has  been  &  is  Fillmoreism.  It  loosened  considerably  during  the 
week,  not  under  my  preaching,  but  under  the  election  returns 
from  Mo.,  Ky.,  Ark.,  &  N.  C.  I  think  we  shall  ultimately 
get  all  the  Fillmore  men,  who  are  really  anti-slavery  exten- 
sion— the  rest  will  probably  go  to  Buchanan  where  they  right- 
fully belong;  if  they  do  not,  so  much  the  better  for  us. 

September  8th.  (To  Harrison  Maltby.)  I  understand 
you  are  a  Fillmore  man.  Let  me  prove  to  you  that  every  vote 
withheld  from  Fremont  and  given  to  Fillmore  in  this  State 
actually  lessens  Fillmore's  chance  of  being  President. 

Suppose  Buchanan  gets  all  the  slave  States  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  any  other  one  State  besides;  then  he  is  elected,  no 
matter  who  gets  all  the  rest.  But  suppose  Fillmore  gets  the 
two  slave  States  of  Maryland  and  Kentucky;  then  Buchanan 
is  not  elected;  Fillmore  goes  into  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  may  be  made  President  by  a  compromise. 

But  suppose,  again,  Fillmore's  friends  throw  away  a  few 
thousand  votes  on  him  in  Indiana  and  Illinois ;  it  will  inevitably 
give  these  States  to  Buchanan,  which  will  more  than  compen- 
sate him  for  the  loss  of  Maryland  and  Kentucky;  will  elect 
him,  and  leave  Fillmore  no  chance  in  the  H.  of  R.  or  out  of  it. 

This  is  as  plain  as  adding  up  the  weight  of  three  small 
hogs.  As  Mr.  Fillmore  has  no  possible  chance  to  carry  Illi- 
nois for  himself,  it  is  plainly  to  his  interest  to  let  Fremont  take 
it,  and  thus  keep  it  out  of  the  hands  of  Buchanan. 

October  1st.  It  is  constantly  objected  to  Fremont  and  Day- 
ton, that  they  are  supported  by  a  sectional  party,  who  by  their 
sectionalism  endanger  the  national  Union.  This  objection, 
more  than  all  others,  causes  men  really  opposed  to  slavery  ex- 


age  47]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  125 

tension  to  hesitate.  Practically,  it  is  the  most  difficult  objec- 
tion we  have  to  meet.  For  this  reason  I  now  propose  to  exam- 
ine it  a  little  more  carefully  than  I  have  heretofore  done,  or 
seen  it  done  by  others.  First,  then,  what  is  the  question  be- 
tween the  parties  respectively  represented  by  Buchanan  and 
Fremont?  Simply  this.  "Shall  slavery  be  allowed  to  extend 
into  United  States  territories  now  legally  free?"  Buchanan 
says  it  shall,  and  Fremont  says  it  shall  not. 

The  thing  which  gives  most  color  to  the  charge  of  section- 
alism, made  against  those  who  oppose  the  spread  of  slavery 
into  free  territory,  is  the  fact  that  they  can  get  no  votes  in 
the  slave  States,  while  their  opponents  get  all,  or  nearly  so,  in 
the  slave  States,  and  also  a  large  number  in  the  free  States. 
To  take  it  in  another  way,  the  extensionists  can  give  votes  over 
the  nation,  while  the  restrictionists  can  get  them  only  in  the 
free  States. 

This  being  the  fact,  why  is  it  so?  It  is  not  because  one 
side  of  the  question  dividing  them  is  more  sectional  than  the 
other,  nor  because  of  any  difference  in  the  mental  or  moral 
structure  of  the  people  North  and  South.  It  is  because  in  that 
question  the  people  of  the  South  have  an  immediate,  palpable 
and  immensely  great  pecuniary  interest,  while  with  the  people 
of  the  North  it  is  merely  an  abstract  question  of  moral  right, 
with  only  slight  and  remote  pecuniary  interest  added. 

The  slaves  of  the  South,  at  a  moderate  estimate,  are  worth 
a  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  Let  it  be  permanently  settled 
that  this  property  may  extend  to  new  territory  without  re- 
straint, and  it  greatly  enhances,  perhaps  quite  doubles,  its  value 
at  once.  This  immense,  palpable,  pecuniary  interest  on  the 
question  of  extending  slavery  unites  the  Southern  people  as 
one  man.  But  it  can  not  be  demonstrated  that  the  North  will 
gain  a  dollar  by  restricting  it.  Moral  principle  is  all,  or  nearly 
all,  that  unites  us  of  the  North.  Pity  'tis,  it  is  so,  but  this  is 
a  looser  bond  than  pecuniary  interest.    Right  here  is  the  plain 


126  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1856 

cause  of  their  perfect  union  and  our  want  of  it.  And  see  how 
it  works.  If  a  Southern  man  aspires  to  be  President,  they 
choke  him  down  instantly,  in  order  that  the  glittering  prize  of 
the  presidency  may  be  held  up  on  Southern  terms  to  the  greedy 
eyes  of  Northern  ambition.  With  this  they  tempt  us  and 
break  it  upon  us. 

Republicans  lose  the  election.  Democrats  elect  Buchanan, 
drawing  to  them  a  great  many  Whigs  who  look  upon  the  Re- 
publicans as  too  radical. 

December  10th.  We  have  another  annual  Presidential 
message.  Like  a  rejected  lover  making  merry  at  the  wedding 
of  his  rival,  the  President  [Pierce]  felicitated  himself  hugely 
over  the  late  Presidential  election.  He  considers  the  result  a 
signal  triumph  of  good  principles  and  good  men,  and  a  very 
pointed  rebuke  of  bad  ones.  He  says  the  people  did  it.  He 
forgets  that  the  "people,"  as  he  complacently  calls  only  those 
who  voted  for  Buchanan,  are  in  a  minority  of  the  whole  people 
by  about  four  hundred  thousand  votes — one  full  tenth  of  all 
the  votes.  Remembering  this,  he  might  perceive  that  the 
"rebuke"  may  not  be  quite  as  durable  as  he  seems  to  think — 
that  the  majority  may  not  choose  to  remain  permanently  re- 
buked by  that  minority. 

The  President  thinks  that  the  great  body  of  us  Fre- 
monters,  being  ardently  attached  to  liberty,  in  the  abstract, 
were  duped  by  a  few  wicked  and  designing  men.  There  is  a 
slight  difference  of  opinion  on  this.  We  think  he,  being 
ardently  attached  to  the  hope  of  a  second  term,  in  the  concrete, 
was  duped  by  men  who  had  liberty  every  way.  He  is  the 
cat's-paw.  By  much  dragging  of  chestnuts  from  the  fire  for 
others  to  eat,  his  claws  are  burnt  off  to  the  gristle,  and  he  is 
thrown  aside  as  unfit  for  further  use.  As  the  fool  said  of 
King  Lear  when  his  daughters  had  turned  him  out  of  doors, 
"He's  a  shelled  peascod." 


age  47]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  127 

Our  government  rests  in  public  opinion.  Whoever  can 
change  public  opinion  can  change  the  government  practically 
just  so  much.  Public  opinion,  on  any  subject,  always  has  a 
"central  idea,'*  from  which  all  its  minor  thoughts  radiate. 
That  "central  idea"  in  our  political  public  opinion  at  the  be- 
ginning was,  and  until  recently  has  continued  to  be,  "the 
equality  of  men."  And  although  it  has  always  submitted 
patiently  to  whatever  of  inequality  there  seemed  to  be  as  mat- 
ter of  actual  necessity,  its  constant  working  has  been  a  steady 
progress  toward  the  practical  equality  of  all  men.  The  late 
Presidential  election  was  a  struggle  by  one  party  to  discard 
that  central  idea  and  to  substitute  for  it  the  opposite  idea  that 
slavery  is  right  in  the  abstract,  the  workings  of  which  as  a 
central  idea  may  be  the  perpetuity  of  human  slavery  and  its 
extension  to  all  countries  and  colors. 


1857 

Apropos  the  rumor  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  ruled  the  house — 

February  20th.  (To  John  E.  Rosette.)  Your  note  about 
the  little  paragraph  in  the  Republican  was  received  yesterday, 
since  which  time  I  have  been  too  unwell  to  notice  it.  I  had 
not  supposed  you  wrote  or  approved  it.  The  whole  originated 
in  mistake.  You  know  by  the  conversation  with  me  that  I 
thought  the  establishment  of  the  paper  unfortunate,  but  I 
always  expected  to  throw  no  obstacle  in  its  way,  and  to  pa- 
tronize it  to  the  extent  of  taking  and  paying  for  one  copy. 
When  the  paper  was  brought  to  my  house,  my  wife  said  to  me, 
"Now  are  you  going  to  take  another  worthless  little  paper?" 
I  said  to  her  evasively,  "I  have  not  directed  the  paper  to  be 
left."  From  this,  in  my  absence,  she  sent  the  message  to  the 
carrier.     This  is  the  whole  story. 

March  6th.  Dred  Scott  Decision.  There  follows  another 
act  in  the  oratorical  duel  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas.  The 
latter  delivers  a  speech  at  Springfield  defending  the  decision 
and  denouncing  its  critics.  He  professes  to  believe  that  the 
Republicans  advocate  a  mixture  of  races.  To  this  charge 
especially  Lincoln  replies. 

June  26th.  There  is  a  natural  disgust,  in  the  minds  of 
nearly  all  white  people,  at  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate  amalga- 
mation of  the  white  and  black  races;  and  Judge  Douglas  evi- 
dently is  basing  his  chief  hope  upon  the  chances  of  his  being 

128 


age48]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  129 

able  to  appropriate  the  benefit  of  this  disgust  to  himself. 
If  he  can,  by  much  drumming  and  repeating,  fasten  the  odium 
of  that  idea  upon  his  adversaries,  he  thinks  he  can  struggle 
through  the  storm.  He,  therefore,  clings  to  this  hope,  as  a 
drowning  man  to  the  last  plank.  He  makes  an  occasion  for 
lugging  it  in  from  the  opposition  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
He  finds  the  Republicans  insisting  that  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence includes  all  men,  black  as  well  as  white,  and 
forthwith  he  boldly  denies  that  it  included  negroes  at  all,  and 
proceeds  to  argue  gravely  that  all  who  contend  it  does  do  so 
only  because  they  want  to  vote,  and  eat,  and  sleep,  and  marry 
with  negroes.  He  will  have  it  that  they  can  not  be  consistent 
else.  Now  I  protest  against  the  counterfeit  logic  which  con- 
cludes that  because  I  do  not  want  a  black  woman  for  a  slave 
I  must  necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her 
for  either.  I  can  just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects  she 
certainly  is  not  my  equal;  but  in  her  natural  right  to  eat  the 
bread  she  earns  with  her  own  hands  without  asking  leave  of 
any  one  else,  she  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  all  others. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  his  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott  case, 
admits  that  the  language  of  the  Declaration  is  broad  enough 
to  include  the  whole  human  family ;  but  he  and  Judge  Douglas 
argue  that  the  authors  of  that  instrument  did  not  intend  to 
include  negroes,  by  the  fact  that  they  did  not  at  once  actually 
place  all  white  men  on  an  equality  with  one  another.  And 
this  is  the  staple  argument  of  both  the  Chief  Justice  and  the 
Senator  for  doing  this  obvious  violence  to  the  plain,  unmis- 
takable language  of  the  Declaration. 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  intended 
to  include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  intend  to  declare  all  men 
equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not  mean  to  say  all  men  were 
equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  developments,  or  social 
capacity.  They  defined  with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what  re- 
spects they  did  consider  all  men  created  equal,  equal  with  "cer- 


130  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1857 

tain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  This  they  said,  and  this  they  meant. 
They  did  not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth,  that  all  were 
then  actually  enjoying  that  quality,  nor  yet  that  they  were 
about  to  confer  it  immediately  upon  them.  In  fact,  they  had 
no  power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply  to 
declare  the  right,  so  that  the  enforcement  of  it  might  follow 
as  fast  as  circumstances  should  permit. 

I  have  said  that  the  separation  of  the  races  is  the  only  per- 
fect preventive  of  amalgamation.  I  have  no  right  to  say 
all  the  members  of  the  Republican  party  are  in  favor  of  this, 
nor  to  say  that  as  a  party  they  are  in  favor  of  it.  There  is 
nothing  in  their  platform  directly  on  the  subject.  But  I  can 
say  a  very  large  proportion  of  its  members  are  for  it,  and  that 
the  chief  plank  in  their  platform — opposition  to  the  spread  of 
slavery — is  most  favorable  to  that  separation. 

Such  separation,  if  ever  effected  at  all,  must  be  effected 
by  colonization;  and  no  political  party,  as  such,  is  now  doing 
anything  directly  for  colonization.  Party  operations  at  pres- 
ent only  favor  or  retard  colonization  incidentally.  The  enter- 
prise is  a  difficult  one;  but  "where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a 
way,"  and  what  colonization  needs  most  is  a  hearty  will.  Will 
springs  from  the  two  elements  of  moral  sense  and  self-interest. 
Let  us  be  brought  to  believe  it  is  morally  right,  and  at  the 
same  time  favorable  to,  or  at  least  not  against,  our  interest 
to  transfer  the  African  to  his  native  clime,  and  we  shall  find 
a  way  to  do  it,  however  great  the  task  may  be.  The  children 
of  Israel,  to  such  numbers  as  to  include  four  hundred  thou- 
sand fighting  men,  went  out  of  Egyptian  bondage  in  a  body. 

How  differently  the  respective  courses  of  the  Democratic 
and  Republican  parties  incidentally  bear  on  the  question  of 
forming  a  will — a  public  sentiment — for  colonization,  is  easy 
to  see.  The  Republicans  inculcate,  with  whatever  of  ability 
they  can,  that  the  negro  is  a  man,  that  his  bondage  is  cruelly 


age  48]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  131 

wrong,  and  that  the  field  of  his  oppression  ought  not  to  be 
enlarged.  The  Democrats  deny  his  manhood;  deny,  or  dwarf 
to  insignificance,  the  wrong  of  his  bondage;  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, crush  all  sympathy  for  him,  and  cultivate  and  excite 
hatred  and  disgust  against  him;  compliment  themselves  as 
Union-savers  for  doing  so;  and  call  the  indefinite  outspreading 
of  his  bondage  "a  sacred  right  of  self-government.,, 

The  plainest  print  can  not  be  read  through  a  gold  eagle; 
and  it  will  be  ever  hard  to  find  many  men  who  will  send  a  slave 
to  Liberia,  and  pay  his  passage,  while  they  can  send  him  to  a 
new  country — Kansas,  for  instance — and  sell  him  for  fifteen 
hundred  dollars,  and  the  rise. 

He  is  beginning  to  have  considerable  reputation  as  a  public 
speaker;  receives  an  invitation  to  speak  in  Iowa. 

August.  I  lost  nearly  all  the  working  part  of  last  year,  giv- 
ing my  time  to  the  canvass;  and  I  am  altogether  too  poor  to 
lose  two  years  together.  I  am  engaged  in  a  suit  in  the  United 
States  Court  at  Chicago,  in  which  the  Rock  Island  Bridge 
Company  is  a  party.  The  trial  is  to  commence  on  the  8th  of 
September,  and  probably  will  last  two  or  three  weeks.  During 
the  trial  it  is  not  improbable  that  all  hands  may  come  over  and 
take  a  look  at  the  bridge,  and  if  it  were  possible  to  make  it  hit 
right,  I  could  then  speak  at  Davenport.  My  courts  go  right  on 
without  cessation  till  late  in  November. 

September.  Lincoln  argues  his  most  celebrated  civil  suit, 
defending  the  owners  of  a  bridge  over  the  Mississippi  (Rock 
Island  Bridge  Company)  against  prosecution  by  the  steamboat 
interests.  The  jury  disagrees,  nine  for  the  bridge,  three 
against  it. 

Soon  after  this  comes  his  most  famous  criminal  case. 

(To  Hannah  Armstrong.)     I  have  just  heard  of  your  deep 


132  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1857 

affliction,  and  the  arrest  of  your  son  for  murder.  I  can  hardly 
believe  that  he  can  be  capable  of  the  crime  alleged  against  him. 
It  does  not  seem  possible.  I  am  anxious  that  he  should  be 
given  a  fair  trial  at  any  rate;  and  gratitude  for  your  long- 
continued  kindness  to  me  in  adverse  circumstances  prompts  me 
to  offer  my  humble  services  gratuitously  m  his  behalf. 

It  will  afford  me  an  opportunity  to  requite,  in  a  small  de- 
gree, the  favors  I  received  at  your  hand,  and  that  of  your 
lamented  husband,  when  your  roof  afforded  me  a  grateful 
shelter  without  money  and  without  price.* 

November.  Breach  between  Douglas  and  Buchanan  over 
the  proposed  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  slave  State  under  its 
so-called  "Lecompton  Constitution"  adopted  September,  1857. 
Douglas,  believing  this  constitution  to  be  the  result  of  a  packed 
election,  refuses  to  stand  by  the  President  in  urging  the  admis- 
sion of  the  State.  In  the  controversy  which  ensues  he  makes 
his  famous  assertion  that  he  does  not  care  whether  slavery  is 
tc voted  up  or  down"  in  Kansas,  that  his  sole  care  is  whether 
the  conclusion  is  reached  through  the  free  exercise  of  local 
choice,  through  iC  popular  sovereignty" 

30th.  (To  Lyman  Trumbull.)  What  think  you  of  the 
probable  "rumpus"  among  the  Democracy  over  the  Kansas 
Constitution?  I  think  the  Republicans  should  stand  clear  of 
it.  In  their  view  both  the  President  and  Douglas  are  wrong; 
and  they  should  not  espouse  the  cause  of  either,  because  they 
may  consider  the  other  a  little  the  farther  wrong  of  the  two. 
From  what  I  am  told  here,  Douglas  tried,  before  leaving,  to 
draw  off  some  Republicans  on  this  issue,  and  even  succeeded 
in  making  some  impression  on  one  or  two. 


*When  Lincoln  was  keeping  store  at  New  Salem,  Jack  Armstrong, 
father  of  the  boy  now  accused  of  murder,  was  a  wild  young  fellow  who 
nevertheless  became  his  fast  friend.  Their  freindship  began  with  a 
wrestling  match  in  which  Lincoln  was  the  victor.     See  also  p.  134. 


age  48]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  133 

Certain  eastern  Republicans  seise  upon  the  quarrel  between 
Douglas  and  Buchanan  as  a  chance  to  win  Douglas  to  their 
side. 

December  28th.  What  does  the  New  York  Tribune  mean 
by  its  constant  eulogizing,  and  admiring,  and  magnifying 
Douglas?  Does  it,  in  this,  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  Repub- 
licans at  Washington  ?  Have  they  concluded  that  the  Republi- 
can cause,  generally,  can  be  best  prompted  by  sacrificing  us 
here  in  Illinois?  If  so  we  would  like  to  know  it  soon;  it  will 
save  us  a  great  deal  of  labor  to  surrender  at  once. 

As  yet  I  have  heard  of  no  Republican  here  going  over  to 
Douglas;  but  if  the  Tribune  continues  to  din  his  praises  into 
the  ears  of  its  five  or  ten  thousand  Republican  readers  in 
Illinois,  it  is  more  than  can  be  hoped  that  all  will  stand  firm. 


1858 

February  23rd.  This  [autograph  album]  is  the  first  book 
for  such  a  purpose  I  ever  saw.  (Writes  on  the  first  page.) 
To-day,  February  23,  1858,  the  owner  honored  me  with  the 
privilege  of  writing  the  first  name  in  this  book. 

Senatorial  contest  in  Illinois  for  seat  occupied  by  Doug- 
las which  will  be  vacant  in  1859.  Douglas  hopes  to  succeed 
himself.    Lincoln  is  his  rival. 

April  21st.  I  have  believed — I  do  believe  now — that 
Greeley,  for  instance,  would  be  rather  pleased  to  see  Douglas 
reelected  over  me  or  any  other  Republican;  and  yet  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  because  of  any  secret  arrangement  with  Douglas. 
It  is  because  he  thinks  Douglas's  superior  position,  reputation, 
experience,  ability,  if  you  please,  would  more  than  compensate 
for  his  lack  of  a  pure  Republican  position,  and  therefore  his 
reelection  would  do  the  general  cause  of  Republicanism  more 
good  than  would  the  election  of  any  one  of  our  better  undis- 
tinguished pure  Republicans. 

Greeley  writes  to  Lincoln  to  the  effect  that  he  ought  not  to 
renew  his  candidacy  for  the  Senate  but  should  contribute  to 
win  over  Douglas. 

May  ph.  Lincoln  wins  his  most  famous  criminal  case, 
clearing  Duff  Armstrong  of  the  charge  of  murder.  He  proves 
that  evidence  given  was  false  because  it  misrepresented  the 
state  of  the  moon  on  the  night  when  the  murder  was  said  to 
have  taken  place. 

134 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  135 

May  10th.  Politically  speaking,  there  is  a  curious  state  of 
things  here.  The  impulse  of  almost  every  Democrat  is  to  stick 
to  Douglas;  but  it  horrifies  them  to  have  to  follow  him  out  of 
the  Democratic  party.  A  good  many  are  annoyed  that  he  did 
not  go  for  the  English  contrivance,  and  thus  heal  the  breach. 
They  begin  to  think  there  is  a  "negro  in  the  fence," — that 
Douglas  really  wants  to  have  a  fuss  with  the  President ; — that 
sticks  in  their  throats. 

15th.  The  "State  Register"  here  is  evidently  laboring  its 
old  friends  into  what  the  doctors  call  the  "comatose  state" — 
that  is,  a  sort  of  drowsy,  dreamy  condition,  in  which  they  may 
not  perceive  or  remember  that  there  has  ever  been,  or  is,  any 
difference  between  Douglas  and  the  President.  This  could  be 
done  if  the  Buchanan  men  would  allow  it — which,  however, 
the  latter  seem  determined  not  to  do. 

I  think  our  prospects  gradually  and  steadily  grow  better, 
though  we  are  not  yet  clear  out  of  the  woods  by  a  great  deal. 

27th.  Political  matters  just  now  bear  a  very  mixed  and 
incongruous  aspect.  For  several  days  the  signs  have  been  that 
Douglas  and  the  President  have  probably  buried  the  hatchet — 
Douglas's  friends  at  Washington  going  over  to  the  President's 
side,  and  his  friends  here  and  South  of  here  talking  as  if  there 
never  had  been  any  serious  difficulty,  while  the  President  him- 
self does  nothing  for  his  own  peculiar  friends  here.  But  this 
morning  my  partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  receives  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Medill  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  showing  the  writer  to  be  in 
great  alarm  at  the  prospect  North  of  Republicans  going  over 
to  Douglas,  on  the  idea  that  Douglas  is  going  to  assume  steep 
Free-soil  ground,  and  furiously  assail  the  administration  on 
the  stump  when  he  comes  home.  There  certainly  is  a  double 
game  being  played  somehow.  Possibly — even  probably — 
Douglas  is  temporarily  deceiving  the  President  in  order  to 
crush  out  the  8th  of  June  convention  here.  Unless  he  plays 
his  double  game  more  successfully  than  we  have  often  seen 


136  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

done,  he  can  not  carry  many  Republicans  North,  without  at  the 
same  time  losing  a  larger  number  of  his  old  friends  South. 

In  spite  of  Eastern  opposition,  the  Illinois  Republicans 
nominate  Lincoln  as  their  candidate  for  United  States  Senator. 

June  16th.  (To  Convention  which  had  just  nominated 
him.)  If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither  we 
are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it. 
We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated 
with  the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise  of  putting  an 
end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy, 
that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased  but  has  constantly  aug- 
mented. In  my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have 
been  reached  and  passed.  "A  house  divided  against  itself  can 
not  stand."  I  believe  this  government  can  not  endure  per- 
manently half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall;  but  I  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing 
or  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the 
further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction; 
or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike 
lawful  in  all  the  States — old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well 
as  South   .    .    . 

Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion,  is  at  least  a  caged  and 
toothless  one.  How  can  he  oppose  the  advances  of  slavery? 
He  don't  care  anything  about  it.  His  avowed  mission  is  im- 
pressing the  "public  heart"  to  care  nothing  about  it. 

A  leading  Douglas  Democratic  newspaper  thinks  Doug- 
las's superior  talent  will  be  needed  to  resist  the  revival  of  the 
African  slave-trade.  Does  Douglas  believe  an  effort  to  revive 
that  trade  is  approaching  ?  He  has  not  said  so.  Does  he  really 
think  so?    But,  if  it  is,  how  can  he  resist  it?    For  years  he  has 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  137 

labored  to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of  white  men  to  take  negro 
slaves  into  the  new  Territories.  Can  he  possibly  show  that  it 
is  less  a  sacred  right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  be  bought 
cheapest?  And  unquestionably  they  can  be  bought  cheaper  in 
Africa  than  in  Virginia. 

He  has  done  all  in  his  power  to  reduce  the  whole  question 
of  slavery  to  one  of  a  mere  right  of  property ;  and  as  such,  how 
can  he  oppose  the  foreign  slave-trade — how  can  he  refuse  that 
trade  in  that  "property"  shall  be  "perfectly  free/' — unless  he 
does  it  as  a  protection  to  the  home  production?  And,  as  the 
home  producers  will  probably  not  ask  the  protection,  he  will  be 
wholly  without  a  ground  of  opposition. 

Our  cause,  then,  must  be  instructed  to,  and  conducted  by, 
its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose  hands  are  free,  whose 
hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do  care  for  the  result. 

Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation  mustered 
over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We  did  this  under  the 
single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a  common  danger;  with  every 
external  circumstance  against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and 
even  hostile  elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and 
formed  and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot 
fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we 
brave  all  then  to  falter  now? — now,  when  that  same  enemy  is 
wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent  ?  The  result  is  not  doubt- 
ful. We  shall  not  fail — if  we  stand  firm,  we  shall  not  fail. 
Wise  counsels  may  accelerate  or  mistakes  delay  it,  but  sooner 
or  later,  the  victory  is  sure  to  come. 

24th.  (To  Henry  C.  Whitney.)  Your  letter  enclosing  the 
attack  of  the  Times  upon  me  was  received  this  morning. — Give 
yourself  no  concern  about  my  voting  against  the  supplies,* 
unless  you  are  without  faith  that'  a  lie  can  be  successfully  c<3n- 


_  *He  is  always  careful  to  make  plain  that  in  1848  in  Congress  he  voted 
against  the  mode  of  starting  the  war,  not  against  its  continuance,  once 
begun.     This  was  the  recognized   Whig  position. 


138  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

traaicted.  There  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  the  charge,  and  I 
am  just  considering  a  little  as  to  the  best  shape  to  put  a  con- 
tradiction in.  Show  this  to  whomever  you  please,  but  do  not 
publish  it  in  the  papers. 

25th.  (To  J.  W.  Somers.)  It  may  well  puzzle  older 
heads  than  yours  to  understand  how,  as  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision holds,  Congress  can  authorize  a  territorial  legislature 
to  do  anything  else,  and  can  not  authorize  them  to  prohibit 
slavery.  This  is  one  of  the  things  the  court  can  decide,  but 
can  never  give  an  intelligible  reason  for. 

The  campaign  for  the  election  of  a  State  Legislature  that 
should  choose  a  new  Senator  opens  at  Chicago  Jidy  pth,  with 
the  speech  of  Douglas  from  a  balcony  of  the  Tremont  House. 
Lincoln  is  present  and  the  following  night  replies.  In  the 
political  duel  which  follows,  the  issues,  aside  from  challenging 
the  records  of  the  candidates,  are  the  same  as  at  the  time  of 
the  Peoria  speech  (October  16,  1854)  except  for  one  thing. 
Since  then  the  Dred  Scott  decision  (March  7,  1857)  has  ex- 
tended the  principle  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  to  all  the 
Territories,  which  are  thus  declared  to  be  open  to  slavery  if 
their  inhabitants  so  desire,  and  denies  the  right  of  Congress  to 
close  the  Territories  against  slavery.  The  most  burning  ques- 
tion of  the  moment  is,  what  attitude  shall  be  taken  toward  this 
decision. 

Attempts  to  patch  up  the  quarrel  between  Douglas  and 
Buchanan  having  failed,  Douglas  is  very  bitter  against  the 
President,  and  even  accuses  him  of  playing  into  the  hands  of 
the  Republicans  in  Illinois. 

July  10th.    At  Chicago. 

My  fellow-citizens :  On  yesterday  evening,  upon  the  occa- 
sion of  the  reception  given  to  Senator  Douglas,  I  was  fur- 
nished with  a  seat  very  convenient  for  hearing  him  and  was 


age  49]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  139 

otherwise  very  courteously  treated  by  him  and  his  friends,  and 
for  which  I  thank  him  and  them.  During  the  course  of 
his  remarks  my  name  was  mentioned  in  such  a  way  as,  I  sup- 
pose, renders  it  at  least  not  improper  that  I  should  make  some 
sort  of  reply  to  him.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  follow  him  in  the 
precise  order  in  which  he  addressed  the  assembled  multitude 
upon  that  occasion,  though  I  shall  perhaps  do  so  in  the  main. 
There  was  one  question  to  which  he  asked  the  attention  of 
the  crowd,  which  I  deem  of  somewhat  less  importance — at 
least  of  propriety  for  me  to  dwell  upon — than  the  others, 
which  he  brought  in  near  the  close  of  fris  speech,  and  which  I 
think  it  would  not  be  entirely  proper  for  me  to  omit  attending 
to;  and  yet  if  I  were  not  to  give  some  attention  to  it  now,  I 
should  probably  forget  it  altogether.  While  I  am  upon  this 
subject,  allow  me  to  say  that  I  do  not  intend  to  indulge  in 
that  inconvenient  mode  sometimes  adopted  in  this  public  speak- 
ing, of  reading  from  documents;  but  I  shall  depart  from  that 
rule  so  far  as  to  read  a  little  scrap  from  his  speech,  which 
notices  this  first  topic  of  which  I  shall  speak — that  is,  provided 
I  can  find  it  in  the  paper. 

"I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  appeal  to  the  people  against 
the  combination  that  has  been  made  against  me.*  The  Repub- 
lican leaders  have  formed  an  alliance,  an  unholy  and  unnatural 
alliance,  with  a  portion  of  unscrupulous  federal  office-holders. 
I  intend  to  fight  that  allied  army  wherever  I  meet  them.  I 
know  they  deny  the  alliance,  but  yet  these  men  who  are  trying 
to  divide  the  Democratic  party  for  the  purpose  of  electing  a 
Republican  Senator  in  my  place,  are  just  so  much  the  agents 
and  tools  of  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Hence  I  shall 
deal  with  this  allied  army  just  as  the  Russians  dealt  with  the 
allies  at  Sebastopol — that  is,  the  Russians  did  not  stop  to  in- 
quire,   when    they    fired    a    broadside,    whether    it    hit    an 

*This  may  be  called  the  third  round  of  the  persistent  duel  of  these 
inveterate  political  enemies.  See  pp.  99  and  ro3.  Herndon  implies  that 
their  animosity  was  personal  as  well  as  political. 


i4o  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  or  a  Turk.  Nor  will  I  stop  to 
inquire,  nor  shall  I  hesitate,  whether  my  blows  shall  hit  these 
Republican  leaders  or  their  allies,  who  are  holding  the  federal 
offices  and  yet  acting  in  concert  with  them." 

Well,  now,  gentlemen,  is  not  that  very  alarming?  Just 
to  think  of  it;  right  at  the  outset  of  his  canvass,  I,  a  poor,  kind, 
amiable,  intelligent  gentleman — I  am  to  be  slain  in  this  way. 
Why,  my  friend  the  judge  is  not  only,  as  it  turns  out,  not  a 
dead  lion,  nor  even  a  living  one — he  is  the  rugged  Russian 
bear! 

But  if  they  will  have  it — for  he  says  that  we  deny  it — 
that  there  is  any  such  alliance,  as  he  says  there  is — and  I  don't 
propose  hanging  very  much  up  on  this  question  of  veracity — but 
if  he  will  have  it  that  there  is  such  an  alliance — that  the  Ad- 
ministration men  and  we  are  allied,  and  we  stand  in  the  atti- 
tude of  English,  French,  and  Turk,  he  occupying  the  position 
of  the  Russian — in  that  case  I  beg  he  will  indulge  us  while 
we  barely  suggest  to  him  that  these  allies  took  Sebastopol. 

Judge  Douglas  made  two  points  upon  my  recent  speech  at 
Springfield.  Gentjemen,  Judge  Douglas  informed  you  that 
this  speech  of  mine  was  probably  carefully  prepared.  I  admit 
that  it  was.  I  am  not  a  master  of  language;  I  have  not  a  fine 
education ;  I  am  not  capable  of  entering  into  a  disquisition  upon 
dialectics,  as  I  believe  you  call  it;  but  I  do  not  believe  the  lan- 
guage I  employed  bears  any  such  construction  as  Judge  Doug- 
las puts  upon  it. 

I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I  have  now  no  inclination 
to  take  it  back,  that  I  believe  there  is  no  right  and  ought  to 
be  no  inclination  in  the  people  of  the  free  States  to  enter  into 
the  slave  States  and  interfere  with  the  question  of  slavery  at 
all. 

Now  in  relation  to  this  inference  that  I  am  in  favor  of 
a  general  consolidation  of  all  the  local  institutions  of  the 
various    States.      I    have    said    yery   many   times   in  Judge 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  141 

Douglas's  hearing  that  no  man  believed  more  than  I  in  the 
principle  of  self-government;  that  it  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all 
my  ideas  of  just  government,  from  beginning  to  end.  I  have 
denied  that  his  use  of  that  term  applies  properly.  I  believe 
each  individual  is  naturally  entitled  to  do  as  he  pleases  with 
himself  and  the  fruit  of  his  labor,  so  far  as  it  in  no  wise  inter- 
feres with  any  other  man's  rights ;  that  each  community,  as  a 
State,  has  a  right  to  do  exactly  as  it  pleases  with  all  the  con- 
cerns within  that  State  that  interfere  with  the  right  of  no 
other  State ;  and  that  the  General  Government,  upon  principle, 
has  no  right  to  interfere  with  anything  other  than  that  general 
class  of  things  that  does  not  concern  the  whole.  I  have  said 
that  at  all  times.  I  have  said  as  illustrations  that  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  the  right  of  Illinois  to  interfere  with  the  cranberry 
laws  of  Indiana,  the  oyster  laws  of  Virginia,  or  the  liquor  laws 
of  Maine.  I  have  said  these  things  over  and  over  again,  and 
I  repeat  them  here  as  my  sentiments. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  Judge  Douglas  infers,  because  I  hope 
to  see  slavery  put  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  that  I  am 
in  favor  of  Illinois  going  over  and  interfering  with  the  cran- 
berry laws  of  Indiana? 

So  much  then  as  to  my  disposition — my  wish — to  have  all 
the  State  Legislatures  blotted  out,  and  to  have  one  consolidated 
government,  and  a  uniformity  of  domestic  regulations  in  all 
the  States;  by  which  I  suppose  it  is  meant,  if  we  raise  corn 
here,  we  must  make  sugar-cane  grow  here  too,  and  we  must 
make  those  things  which  grow  North  grow  in  the  South.  All 
this  I  suppose  he  understands  I  am  in  favor  of  doing.  Now, 
so  much  for  all  this  nonsense — for  I  must  call  it  so.  The 
judge  can  have  no  issue  with  me  on  a  question  of  establishing 
uniformity  in  the  domestic  regulations  of  the  States. 

I  have  expressed  heretofore,  and  I  now  repeat,  my  oppo- 
sition to  the  Dred  Scott  decision;  but  I  should  be  allowed  to 


142  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

state  the  nature  of  that  opposition,  and  I  ask  your  indulgence 
while  I  do  so.  What  is  fairly  implied  by  the  term  Judge 
Douglas  has  used,  "resistance  to  the  decision"  ?  I  do  not  resist 
it.  If  I  wanted  to  take  Dred  Scott  from  his  master,  I  would  be 
interfering  with  property,  and  that  terrible  difficulty  that 
Judge  Douglas  speaks  of,  of  interfering  with  property,  would 
arise.  But  I  am  doing  no  such  thing  as  that;  all  that  I  am 
doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  political  rule.  If  I  were  in 
Congress,  and  a  vote  should  come  up  on  a  question  whether 
slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  a  new  Territory,  in  spite  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  I  would  vote  that  it  should. 

What  are  the  uses  of  decisions  of  courts?  They  have  two 
uses.  As  rules  of  property  they  have  two  uses.  First — they 
decide  upon  the  question  before  the  court.  They  decide  in 
this  case  that  Dred  Scott  is  a  slave.  Nobody  resists  that.  Not 
only  that,  but  they  say  to  everybody  else  that  persons  standing 
just  as  Dred  Scott  stands  are  as  he  is.  That  is,  they  say  that 
when  a  question  comes  up  upon  another  person,  it  will  be  so 
decided  again,  unless  the  court  decides  in  another  wray,  unless 
the  court  overrules  its  decision.  Well,  we  mean  to  do  what 
we  can  to  have  the  court  decide  the  other  way.  That  is  one 
thing  we  mean  to  try  to  do. 

15th.  (To  Gustave  Koerner.)  I  have  just  been  called  on 
by  one  of  our  German  Republicans  here,  to  ascertain  if  Mr. 
Hecker  could  not  be  prevailed  on  to  visit  this  region  and 
address  the  Germans,  at  this  place,  and  a  few  others  at  least. 
Please  ascertain  and  write  me.  He  would  of  course  have  to  be 
paid  something.     Find  out  from  him  about  how  much. 

I  have  just  returned  from  Chicago.  Douglas  took  noth- 
ing by  his  motion  there — in  fact,  by  his  rampant  endorsement 
of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  he  drove  back  a  few  Republicans 
who  were  favorably  inclined  towards  him.  His  tactics  just 
now,  in  part,  is  to  make  it  appear  that  he  is  having  a  triumphal 
entry  into,  and  march  through  the  country;  but  it  is  all  as 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  143 

bombastic  and  hollow  as  Napoleon's  bulletins  sent  back  from 
his  campaign  in  Russia.  I  was  present  at  his  reception  in 
Chicago,  and  it  was  certainly  very  large  and  imposing;  but 
judging  from  the  opinions  of  others  better  acquainted  with 
faces  there,  and  by  the  strong  call  for  me  to  speak,  when  he 
closed,  I  really  believe  we  could  have  voted  him  down  in  that 
very  crowd. 

Our  meeting,  twenty- four  hours  later,  called  only  twelve 
hours  before  it  came  together  and  got  up  without  trumpery, 
was  really  as  large  and  five  times  as  enthusiastic. 

I?th.    At  Springfield. 

There  is  still  a  disadvantage  under  which  we  [Republicans] 
labor,  and  to  which  I  will  ask  your  attention.  It  arises 
out  of  the  relative  positions  of  the  two  persons  who 
stand  before  the  State  as  candidates  for  the  Senate.  Sen- 
ator Douglas  is  of  world-wide  renown.  All  the  anxious 
politicians  of  his  party,  or  who  have  been  of  his  party 
for  years  past,  have  been  looking  upon  him  as  certainly,  at  no 
distant  day,  to  be  the  President  of  the  United  States.  They 
have  seen  in  his  round,  jolly,  fruitful  face,  post-offices,  land- 
offices,  marshalships  and  cabinet  appointments,  chargeships 
and  foreign  missions,  bursting  and  sprouting  out  in  wonder- 
ful exuberance,  ready  to  be  laid  hold  of  by  their  greedy  hands. 
And  as  they  have  been  gazing  upon  this  attractive  picture  so 
long,  they  can  not,  in  the  little  distraction  that  has  taken  place 
in  the  party,  bring  themselves  to  give  up  the  charming  hope; 
but  with  greedier  anxiety  they  rush  about  him,  sustain  him, 
and  give  him  marches,  triumphal  entries,  and  receptions  be- 
yond what  even  in  the  days  of  his  highest  prosperity  they 
could  have  brought  about  in  his  favor.  On  the  contrary, 
nobody  has  ever  expected  me  to  be  President.  In  my  poor, 
lean,  lank  face  nobody  has  ever  seen  that  any  cabbages  were 
sprouting  out.  These  are  disadvantages,  all  taken  together, 
that  the  Republicans  labor  under.    We  have  to  fight  this  battle 


144  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

upon  principle,  and  upon  principle  alone.  I  am,  in  a  certain 
sense,  made  the  standard-bearer  in  behalf  of  the  Republicans. 
I  was  made  so  merely  because  there  had  to  be  some  one  so 
placed — I  being  in  no  wise  preferable  to  any  other  one  of  the 
twenty-five — perhaps  a  hundred — we  have  in  the  Republican 
ranks.  Then  I  say  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  and 
borne  in  mind,  that  we  have  to  fight  this  battle  without  many — 
perhaps  without  any — of  the  external  aids  which  are  brought 
to  bear  against  us.  So  I  hope  those  with  whom  I  am  sur- 
rounded have  principle  enough  to  nerve  themselves  for  the 
task,  and  leave  nothing  undone  that  can  be  fairly  done  to 
bring  about  the  right  result. 

Although  I  have  ever  been  opposed  to  slavery,  so  far  I 
rested  in  the  hope  and  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ulti- 
mate extinction.  For  that  reason,  it  had  been  a  minor  ques- 
tion with  me.  I  might  have  been  mistaken ;  but  I  had  believed, 
and  now  believe,  that  the  whole  public  mind,  that  is,  the 
mind  of  the  great  majority,  had  rested  in  that  belief  up  to 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.*  But  upon  that 
event,  I  became  convinced  that  either  I  had  been  resting  in  a 
delusion,  or  the  institution  was  being  placed  on  a  new  basis — 
a  basis  for  making  it  perpetual,  national,  and  universal.  Sub- 
sequent events  have  greatly  confirmed  me  in  that  belief.  I 
believe  that  bill  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  conspiracy  for  that 
purpose.  So  believing,  I  have  since  then  considered  that  ques- 
tion a  paramount  one.  So  believing,  I  think  the  public  mind 
will  never  rest  till  the  power  of  Congress  to  restrict  the  spread 
of  it  shall  again  be  acknowledged  and  exercised  on  the  one 
hand,  or,  on  the  other,  all  resistance  be  entirely  crushed  out.  I 
have  expressed  that  opinion,  and  I  entertain  it  to-night.  It  is 
denied  that  there  is  any  tendency  to  the  nationalization  of 
slavery  in  these  States. 

Now,  as  to  the  Dred   Scott  decision;   for  upon  that  he 


*That  is,  the  enactment  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. 


age  4Q]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


145 


[Douglas]  makes  his  last  point  at  me.  I  am  opposed  to  that 
decision  in  a  certain  sense,  but  not  in  the  sense  which  he  puts 
on  it.  I  say  that  in  so  far  as  it  decided  in  favor  of  Dred 
Scott's  master,  and  against  Dred  Scott  and  his  family,  I  do  not 
propose  to  disturb  or  resist  the  decision. 

I  never  have  proposed  to  do  any  such  thing.  I  think,  that 
in  respect  for  judicial  authority,  my  humble  history  would  not 
suffer  in  comparison  with  that  of  Judge  Douglas.  He  would 
have  the  citizens  conform  his  vote  to  that  decision;  the  mem- 
ber of  Congress,  his;  the  President,  his  use  of  the  veto  power. 
He  would  make  it  a  rule  of  political  action  for  the  people  and 
all  the  departments  of  the  Government.  I  would  not.  By 
resisting  it  as  a  political  rule,  I  disturb  no  right  of  property, 
create  no  disorder,  excite  no  mobs. 

One  more  thing.  Last  night  Judge  Douglas  tormented 
himself  with  horrors  about  my  disposition  to  make  negroes 
perfectly  equal  with  white  men  in  social  and  political  relations. 

My  declarations  upon  this  subject  of  negro  slavery  may  be 
misrepresented,  but  can  not  be  misunderstood.  I  have  said 
that  I  do  not  understand  the  Declaration  to  mean  that  all  men 
were  created  equal  in  all  respects.  They  are  not  our  equal  in 
color;  but  I  suppose  that  it  does  mean  to  declare  that  all  men 
are  equal  in  some  respects;  they  are  equal  in  their  right  to 
"life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  Certainly  the 
negro  is  not  our  equal  in  color — perhaps  not  in  many  other 
respects;  still,  in  the  right  to  put  into  his  mouth  the  bread 
that  his  own  hands  earned,  he  is  the  equal  of  every  other  man, 
white  or  black. 

When  our  Government  was  established,  we  had  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  among  us.  We  were  in  a  certain  sense  com- 
pelled to  tolerate  its  existence.  It  was  a  sort  of  necessity. 
We  had  gone  through  our  struggle,  and  secured  our  own  inde- 
pendence. The  framers  of  the  Constitution  found  the  institution 
of  slavery  among  their  other  institutions  at  the  time.     They 


146  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

found  that  by  an  effort  to  eradicate  it,  they  might  lose  much 
of  what  they  had  already  gained.  They  were  obliged  to  bow 
to  the  necessity.  They  gave  power  to  Congress  to  abolish  the 
slave-trade  at  the  end  of  twenty  years.  They  also  prohibited 
slavery  in  the  Territories  where  it  did  not  exist.  They  did 
what  they  could  and  yielded  to  necessity  for  the  rest.  I  also 
yield  to  all  which  follows  from  that  necessity.  What  I  would 
most  desire  would  be  the  separation  of  the  white  and  black 
races. 

20th.  (To  John  Mathers.)  Your  kind  and  interest- 
ing letter  of  the  19th  was  duly  received.  Your  suggestions  as 
to  placing  one's  self  on  the  offensive  rather  than  the  defensive 
are  certainly  correct.  That  is  a  point  which  I  shall  not  disre- 
gard. I  spoke  here  on  Saturday  night.  The  speech,  not  very 
well  reported,  appears  in  the  State  Journal  of  this  morning. 
You  doubtless  will  see  it ;  and  I  hope  that  you  will  perceive  in 
it,  that  I  am  already  improving.  I  would  mail  you  a  copy  now, 
but  have  not  one  at  hand.  I  thank  you  for  your  letter  and 
shall  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you  again. 

In  the  midst  of  the  political  duel  and  in  spite  of  his  growing 
legal  practise  money  questions  are  pressing. 

(To  Henry  E.  Dummer.)  When  I  was  in  Beardstown  last 
spring,  Doctor  Sprague  said  if  I  would  leave  a  bill,  he  would 
pay  it  before  long.  I  do  not  now  remember  that  I  spoke  to  you 
about  it.  I  am  now  in  need  of  money.  Suppose  we  say  the 
amount  shall  be  $50?  If  the  Doctor  is  satisfied  with  that, 
please  get  the  money  and  send  it  to  me, 

He  decides  upon  a  pitched  battle  with  Douglas. 

24th.  (To  Stephen  A.  Douglas.)  My  dear  Sir:  Will  it 
be  agreeable  to  you  to  make  an  arrangement  for  you  and  myself 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  147 

to  divide  time,  and  address  the  same  audiences  the  present 
canvass?  Mr.  Judd,  who  will  hand  you  this,  is  authorized  to 
receive  your  answer;  and,  if  agreeable  to  you,  to  enter  in  the 
terms  of  such  arrangement. 

Invitation  to  joint  debate  accepted  by  Douglas. 

29th.  (To  Stephen  A.  Douglas.)  Yours  of  the  24th  in 
relation  to  an  arrangement  to  divide  time  and  address  the  same 
audiences  is  received ;  and,  in  apology  for  not  sooner  replying, 
allow  me  to  say,  that  when  I  sat  by  you  at  dinner  yesterday,*  I 
was  not  aware  that  you  had  answered  my  note,  nor  certainly 
that  my  own  had  been  presented  to  you.  An  hour  after  I  saw 
a  copy  of  your  answer  in  the  Chicago  Times  and  reaching 
home,  I  found  the  original  awaiting  me.  Protesting  that  your 
insinuations  of  attempted  unfairness  on  my  part  are  unjust, 
and  with  hope  that  you  did  not  very  considerately  make  them, 
I  proceed  to  reply. 

As  to  your  surprise  that  I  did  not  sooner  make  the  proposal 
to  divide  time  with  you,  I  can  only  say  I  made  it  as  soon  as  I 
resolved  to  make  it.  I  did  not  know  but  that  such  proposal 
would  come  from  you;  I  waited,  respectfully,  to  see.  It  may 
have  been  well  known  to  you  that  you  went  to  Springfield  for 
the  purpose  of  agreeing  on  the  plan  of  campaign ;  but  it  was  not 
so  known  to  me.  When  your  appointments  were  announced 
in  the  papers,  extending  only  to  the  21st  of  August,  I  for  the 
first  time  considered  it  certain  that  you  would  make  no  pro- 
posal to  me,  and  then  resolved  that,  if  my  friends  concurred,  I 
would  make  one  to  you.  As  soon  thereafter  as  I  could  see 
and  consult  with  friends  satisfactorily,  I  did  make  the  proposal. 

I  agree  to  an  arrangement  for  us  to  speak  at  the  seven 
places  you  have  named,  and  at  your  own  times,  provided  you 


The  temper  of  politics  at  that  time  permitted  men  to  call  one  another 
liars  and  robbers  on  the  stump  and  yet  hobnob  off  the  stump  in  the  most 
friendly  way. 


148  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

name  the  times  at  once,  so  that  I,  as  well  as  you,  can  have  to 
myself  the  time  not  covered  by  the  arrangement.  As  to  the 
other  details,  I  wish  perfect  reciprocity,  and  no  more.  I  wish 
as  much  time  as  you,  and  that  conclusions  shall  alternate.  That 
is  all. 

31st.  (To  Stephen  A.  Douglas.)  Yours  of  yesterday, 
naming  places,  times  and  terms  for  joint  discussions  between 
us,  was  received  this  morning.  Although,  by  the  terms,  as 
you  propose,  you  take  four  openings  and  closes  to  my  three,  I 
accede,  and  thus  close  the  arrangement. 

(To  Henry  Asbury.)  Yours  of  the  28th  is  received.  The 
points  you  propose  to  press  upon  Douglas  he  will  be  very  hard 
to  get  up  to,  but  I  think  you  labor  under  a  mistake  when  you 
say  no  one  cares  how  he  answers.  This  implies  that  it  is 
equal  with  him  whether  he  is  injured  here  or  at  the  South. 
That  is  a  mistake.  He  cares  nothing  for  the  South ;  he  knows 
he  is  already  dead  there.  He  only  leans  Southward  more  to 
keep  the  Buchanan  party  from  growing  in  Illinois.  You  shall 
have  hard  work  to  get  him  directly  to  the  point  whether  a 
territorial  legislature  has  or  has  not  the  power  to  exclude  slav- 
ery. But  if  you  succeed  in  bringing  him  to  it^ — though  he  will 
be  compelled  to  say  it  possesses  no  such  power — he  will  in- 
stantly take  ground  that  slavery  can  not  actually  exist  in  the 
Territories  unless  the  people  desire  it,  and  so  give  it  protection 
by  territorial  legislation.  If  this  offends  the  South,  he  will 
let  it  offend  them,  as  at  all  events  he  means  to  hold  on  to  his 
chances  in  Illinois.* 

Lincoln  keeps  a  sharp  eye  on  strategical  dangers  every- 
where in  Illinois. 

August  2nd.  (To  B.  C.  Cook.)  I  have  a  letter  from  a  very 
true  friend  and  intelligent  man  insisting  that  there  is  a  plan 


*This  astute  forecast  of  what  Douglas  will  be  driven  to  do  is  the  clew 
to  Lincoln's  strategy  throughout  the  debates. 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  149 

on  foot  in  La  Salle  and  Bureau  to  run  Douglas  Republicans 
for  Congress  and  for  the  Legislature  in  those  counties,  if  they 
can  only  get  the  encouragement  of  our  folks  nominating  pretty 
extreme  abolitionists.  It  is  thought  they  will  do  nothing  if 
our  folks  nominate  men  who  are  not  very  obnoxious  to  the 
charge  of  abolitionism.  Please  have  your  eye  upon  this.  Signs 
are  looking  pretty  fair. 

$th.  I  do  not  understand  the  Republican  party  to  be  com- 
mitted to  the  proposition  "No  more  slave  States.''  I  think  they 
are  not  so  committed.  Most  certainly  they  prefer  there  should 
be  no  more,  but  I  know  there  are  many  of  them  who  think  we 
are  under  obligations  to  admit  slave  States  from  Texas,  if 
such  shall  be  presented  for  admission;  but  I  think  the  party 
as  such  is  not  committed  either  way. 

6th.  (To  Gustave  Koerner.)  Yesterday  morning  I  found 
a  drop  letter  from  Governor  Bissel  urging,  partly  in  conse- 
quence of  a  letter  from  you,  that  my  late  speeches,  or  some  of 
them,  shall  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form  both  in  English  and 
German.  Having  had  a  good  many  letters  to  the  same  effect, 
I  went  at  once  to  the  Journal  office  here,  and  set  them  to  work 
to  print  me  in  English  fifty  dollars'  worth  of  my  last  speech  at 
Springfield,  July  17th,  that  appearing,  by  what  I  hear,  to  be 
the  most  "taking"  speech  I  have  made.  From  that  sum  they 
will  furnish  about  7,000;  they  will,  at  the  same  time,  print 
some  more,  on  their  account,  and  keep  the  type  standing  for  a 
while. 

Douglas  makes  the  opening  speech  on  the  first  joint  debate, 
at  Ottawa,  August  21st,  propounding  various  questions,  re- 
viewing his  ozvn  record,  and  accusing  Lincoln  of  having  made 
a  deal  with  Trumbull  when  both  were  candidates  in  1854.  A 
large  part  of  the  debates  which  follow  is  strategic  jugglery  of 
the  political  records  of  the  two  rivals.  They  add  practically 
nothing  to  their  statements  of  political  faith.    In  reality,  two 


150  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1858 

experienced  jury  lawyers  are  trying  each  other  before  the  bar 
of  local  opinion  each  aiming  to  make  the  other's  record  discredit 
him. 

2 1  st.    At  Ottawa. 

When  a  man  hears  himself  somewhat  misrepresented,  it 
provokes  him — at  least,  I  find  it  so  with  myself;  but  when 
misrepresentation  becomes  very  gross  and  palpable,  it  is  more 
apt  to  amuse  him.  The  first  thing  I  see  fit  to  notice  is  the 
fact  that  Judge  Douglas  alleges  after  running  through  the  his- 
tory of  the  old  Democratic  and  the  old  Whig  parties,  that 
Judge  Trumbull  and  myself  made  an  arrangement  in  1854,  by 
which  I  was  to  have  the  place  of  General  Shields  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  Judge  Trumbull  was  to  have  the  place  of 
Judge  Douglas.  Now  all  I  have  to  say  upon  that  subject  is 
that  I  think  no  man — not  even  Judge  Douglas — can  prove  it, 
because  it  is  not  true.  I  have  no  doubt  he  is  <(  conscientious"  in 
saying  it.  As  to  those  resolutions  that  he  took  such  a  length 
of  time  to  read,  as  being  the  platform  of  the  Republican  party 
in  1854,  I  say  I  never  had  anything  to  do  with  them,  and  I 
think  Trumbull  never  had. 

Now,  gentlemen,  this  is  the  true  complexion  of  all  I  have 
ever  said  in  regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery  and  the  black 
race.  This  is  the  whole  of  it,  and  everything  that  argues  me 
into  his  idea  of  perfect  social  and  political  equality  with  the 
negro  is  but  a  specious  and  fantastic  arrangement  of  words,  by 
which  a  man  can  prove  a  horse-chestnut  to  be  a  chestnut  horse. 
I  will  say  here,  while  upon  this  subject,  that  I  have  no  purpose, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful 
right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.  I  have  no 
purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social  equality  between  the 
white  and  the  black  races.  There  is  a  physical  difference  be- 
tween the  two,  which,  in  my  judgment,  will  probably  forever 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  151 

forbid  their  living  together  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equal- 
ity; and  inasmuch  as  it  becomes  a  necessity  that  there  must 
be  a  difference,  I,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  am  in  favor  of 
the  race  to  which  I  belong  having  the  superior  position. 

Now  I  pass  on  to  consider  one  or  two  more  of  these  little 
follies.  The  Judge  is  woefully  at  fault  about  his  early  friend 
Lincoln  being  a  "grocery-keeper."  I  don't  know  that  it  would 
be  a  great  sin  if  I  had  been ;  but  he  is  mistaken.  Lincoln  never 
kept  a  grocery  anywhere  in  the  world.  It  is  true  that  Lincoln 
did  work  the  latter  part  of  one  winter  in  a  little  still-house  up 
at  the  head  of  a  hollow.  And  so  I  think  my  friend,  the  Judge, 
is  equally  at  fault  when  he  charges  me  at  the  time  when  I  was 
in  Congress  of  having  opposed  our  soldiers  who  were  fighting 
in  the  Mexican  War.  The  Judge  did  not  make  his  charge  very 
distinctly,  but  I  tell  you  what  he  can  prove,  by  referring  to  the 
record.  You  remember  I  was  an  Old  Whig,  and  whenever 
the  Democratic  party  tried  to  get  me  to  vote  that  the  war  had 
been  righteously  begun  by  the  President,  I  would  not  do  it. 
But  whenever  they  asked  for  any  money,  or  land-warrants,  or 
anything  to  pay  the  soldiers  there,  during  all  that  time,  I  gave 
the  same  vote  that  Judge  Douglas  did.  You  can  think  as  you 
please  as  to  whether  that  was  consistent.  Such  is  the  truth; 
and  the  Judge  has  the  right  to  make  all  he  can  out  of  it.  But 
when  he,  by  a  general  charge,  conveys  the  idea  that  I  withheld 
supplies  from  the  soldiers  who  were  fighting  in  the  Mexican 
War,  or  did  anything  else  to  hinder  the  soldiers,  he  is,  to  say 
the  least,  grossly  and  altogether  mistaken,  as  a  consultation  of 
the  records  will  prove  to  him. 

Again :  there  is  in  that  same  quotation  from  the  Nebraska 
bill  this  clause — "It  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this 
bill  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State."  I 
have  always  been  puzzled  to  know  what  business  the  word 
"State"  had  in  that  connection.  Judge  Douglas  knows.  He 
put  it  there.     He  knows  what  he  put  it  there  for.     We  out- 


152  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

siders  can  not  say  what  he  put  it  there  for.  The  law  they  were 
passing  was  not  about  States,  and  was  not  making  provision 
for  States.  What  was  it  placed  there  for?  After  seeing  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  which  holds  that  the  people  can  not  exclude 
slavery  from  a  Territory,  if  another  Dred  Scott  decision  shall 
come,  holding  that  they  can  not  exclude  it  from  a  State,  we 
shall  discover  that  when  the  word  was  originally  put  there,  it 
was  in  view  of  something  which  was  to  come  in  due  time,  we 
shall  see  that  it  was  the  other  half  of  something.  I  now  say 
again,  if  there  is  any  different  reason  for  putting  it  there, 
Judge  Douglas,  in  a  good-humored  way,  without  calling  any- 
body a  liar,  can  tell  what  the  reason  was. 

In  the  first  place,  what  is  necessary  to  make  an  institution 
national?  Not  war.  There  is  no  danger  that  the  people  of 
Kentucky  will  shoulder  their  muskets,  and,  with  a  young  nigger 
stuck  on  every  bayonet,  march  into  Illinois  and  force  them 
upon  us.  There  is  no  danger  of  our  going  over  there  and 
making  war  upon  them.  Then  what  is  necessary  for  the 
nationalization  of  slavery?  It  is  simply  the  next  Dred  Scott 
decision.  It  is  merely  for  the  Supreme  Court  to  decide  that  no 
State  under  the  Constitution  can  exclude  it,  just  as  they  have 
already  decided  that  under  the  Constitution  neither  Congress 
nor  the  Territorial  Legislature  can  do  it.  When  that  is  decided 
and  acquiesced  in,  the  whole  thing  is  done. 

This  man  sticks  to  a  decision  which  forbids  the  people  of 
a  Territory  to  exclude  slavery,  and  he  does  so  not  because  he 
says  it  is  right  in  itself — he  does  not  give  any  opinion  on 
that — but  because  it  has  been  decided  by  the  court,  and,  being 
decided  by  the  court,  he  is,  as  you  are,  bound  to  take  it  in  your 
political  action  as  lazv — not  that  he  judges  at  all  of  its  merits, 
but  because  a  decision  of  the  court  is  to  him  a  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord!*  He  places  it  on  that  ground  alone,  and  you  will  bear 
in  mind  that  thus  committing  himself  unreservedly  to  this  de- 
cision, commits  him  to  the  next  one  just  as  firmly  as  to  this. 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  153 

He  did  not  commit  himself  on  account  of  the  merit  or  demerit 
of  the  decision,  but  it  is  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord."  The  next 
decision,  as  much  as  this,  will  be  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord." 
There  is  nothing  that  can  divert  or  turn  him  away  from  this 
decision. 

Henry  Clay,  my  beau  ideal  of  a  statesman,  the  man  for 
whom  I  fought  all  my  humble  life — Henry  Clay  once  said  of  a 
class  of  men  who  would  repress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and 
ultimate  emancipation,  that  they  must,  if  they  would  do  this, 
go  back  to  the  era  of  our  independence,  and  muzzle  the  cannon 
which  thunders  its  annual  joyous  return;  they  must  blow  out 
the  moral  lights  around  us;  they  must  penetrate  the  human 
soul,  and  eradicate  there  the  love  of  liberty;  and  then,  and  not 
till  then,  could  they  perpetuate  slavery  in  this  country !  To  my 
thinking,  Judge  Douglas  is,  by  his  example  and  vast  influence, 
doing  that  very  thing  in  this  community  when  he  says  that  the 
negro  has  nothing  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Henry 
Clay  plainly  understood  the  contrary.  Judge  Douglas  is  going 
back  to  the  era  of  our  Revolution,  and  to  the  extent  of  his 
ability  muzzling  the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joyous 
return.  When  he  invites  any  people,  willing  to  have  slavery, 
to  establish  it,  he  is  blowing  out  the  moral  lights  around  us. 
When  he  says  he  "cares  not  whether  slavery  is  voted  down  or 
voted  up" — that  it  is  a  sacred  right  of  self-government — he  is, 
in  my  judgment,  penetrating  the  human  soul  and  eradicating 
the  light  of  reason  and  the  love  of  liberty  in  this  American 
people. 

22nd.  (To  J.  O.  Cunningham.)  Yours  of  the  18th,  signed 
as  secretary  of  the  Republican  club,  is  received.  In  the  matter 
of  making  speeches  I  am  a  good  deal  pressed  by  invitations 
from  almost  all  quarters,  and  while  I  hope  to  be  at  Urbana 
some  time  during  the  canvass,  I  can  not  yet  say  when.  Can 
you  not  see  me  at  Monticello  on  the  6th  of  September? 

Douglas  and  I,  for  the  first  time  this  canvass,  crossed 


154  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

swords  here  yesterday;  the  fire  flew  some,  and  I  am  glad  to 
know  I  am  yet  alive.  There  was  a  vast  concourse  of  people — 
more  than  could  get  near  enough  to  hear. 

27th.     At  Freeport. 

On  Saturday  last,  Judge  Douglas  and  myself  first  met  in 
public  discussion.  In  the  course  of  that  opening  argument 
Judge  Douglas  proposed  to  me  seven  distinct  interroga- 
tories. ...  I  now  propose  that  I  will  answer  any  of  the 
interrogatories,  upon  condition  that  he  will  answer  questions 
from  me  not  exceeding  the  same  number.  I  give  him  an  op- 
portunity to  respond.  The  Judge  remains  silent.  I  now  say 
that  I  will  answer  his  interrogatories,  whether  he  answers  mine 
or  not ;  and  that  after  I  have  done  so,  I  shall  propound  mine 
to  him. 

Having  said  this  much,  I  will  take  up  the  Judge's  interrog- 
atories as  I  find  them  printed  in  the  Chicago  Times,  and 
answer  them  seriatim.  In  order  that  there  may  be  no  mistake 
about  it,  I  have  copied  the  interrogatories  in  writing,  and  also 
my  answers  to  them.  The  first  one  of  these  interrogatories  is 
in  these  words : 

Question  1.  "I  desire  to  know  whether  Lincoln  to-day 
stands  as  he  did  in  1854,  in  favor  of  the  unconditional  repeal 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law?" 

Answer.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  in  favor  of  the 
unconditional  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law. 

Q.  2.  "I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands  pledged 
to-day  as  he  did  in  1854,  against  the  admission  of  any  more 
slave  States  into  the  Union,  even  if  the  people  want  them?" 

A.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  pledged  against  the 
admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union. 

Q.  3.  "I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged  against 
the  admission  of  a  new  State  into  the  Union  with  such  a  Con- 
stitution as  the  people  of  that  State  may  see  fit  to  make?" 

A.    I  do  not  stand  pledged  against  the  admission  of  a  new 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  155 

State  Into  the  Union  with  such  a  Constitution  as  the  people 
of  that  State  may  see  fit  to  make. 

Q.  4.  "I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  to-day  pledged 
to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia?" 

A.  I  do  not  stand  to-day  pledged  to  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Q.  5.  "I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands  pledged 
to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade  between  the  different 
States?" 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave- 
trade  between  the  different  States. 

Q.  6.  "I  desire  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged  to 
prohibit  slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States, 
North  as  well  as  South,  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line?" 

A.  I  am  impliedly,  if  not  expressly,  pledged  to  a  belief 
in  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  the 
United  States  Territories. 

Q.  7.  "I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  is  opposed  to  the 
acquisition  of  any  new  territory  unless  slavery  is  first  prohib- 
ited therein?" 

A.  I  am  not  generally  opposed  to  honest  acquisition  of 
territory ;  and,  in  any  given  case,  I  would  or  would  not  oppose 
such  acquisition,  accordingly  as  I  might  think  such  acquisition 
would  or  would  not  aggravate  the  slavery  question  among 
ourselves. 

As  to  the  first  one,  in  regard  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  I 
have  never  hesitated  to  say,  and  I  do  not  now  hesitate  to  say, 
that  I  think,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  are  entitled  to  a  Congressional 
Fugitive  Slave  law.  Having  said  that,  I  have  had  nothing  to 
say  in  regard  to  the  existing  Fugitive  Slave  law,  further  than 
that  I  think  it  should  have  been  framed  so  as  to  be  free  from 
some  of  the  objections  that  pertain  to  it,  without  lessening 
its  efficiency.    And  inasmuch  as  we  are  now  in  an  agitation 


156  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

in  regard  to  an  alteration  or  modification  of  that  law,  I  would 
not  be  the  man  to  introduce  it  as  a  new  subject  of  agitation 
upon  the  general  question  of  slavery. 

In  regard  to  the  other  question,  of  whether  I  am  pledged 
to  the  admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union,  I 
state  to  you  very  frankly  that  I  would  be  exceedingly  sorry  ever 
to  be  put  in  a  position  of  having  to  pass  upon  that  question.  I 
should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  know  that  there  would  never  be 
another  slave  State  admitted  into  the  Union;  but  I  must  add, 
that  if  slavery  shall  be  kept  out  of  the  Territories  during  the 
territorial  existence  of  any  one  given  Territory,  and  then  the 
people  shall,  having  a  fair  chance  and  a  clear  field,  when  they 
come  to  adopt  the  Constitution,  do  such  an  extraordinary  thing 
as  to  adopt  a  slave  constitution,  uninfluenced  by  the  actual 
presence  of  the  institution  among  them,  I  see  no  alternative,  if 
we  own  the  country,  but  to  admit  them  into  the  Union. 

The  third  interrogatory  is  answered  by  the  answer  to  the 
second,  it  being,  as  I  conceive,  the  same  as  the  second. 

The  fourth  one  is  in  regard  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  In  relation  to  that,  I  have  my 
mind  very  distinctly  made  up.  I  should  be  exceedingly  glad 
to  see  slavery  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  I  believe 
that  Congress  possesses  the  constitutional  power  to  abolish  it. 
Yet  as  a  member  of  Congress,  I  should  not  with  my  present 
views,  be  in  favor  of  endeavoring  to  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  unless  it  would  be  upon  these  conditions : 
First,  that  the  abolition  should  be  gradual;  Second,  that  it 
should  be  on  a  vote  of  the  majority  of  qualified  voters  in  the 
District;  and  third,  that  compensation  should  be  made  to  un- 
willing owners.  With  these  three  conditions,  I  confess  I  would 
be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  Congress  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and,  in  the  language  of  Henry  Clay, 
"sweep  from  our  capital  that  foul  blot  upon  our  nation." 

In  regard  to  the  fifth  interrogatory,  I  must  say  that  as  to 


ACK49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  157 

the  question  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  between  the 
different  States,  I  can  truly  answer,  as  I  have,  that  I  am 
pledged  to  nothing  about  it.  It  is  a  subject  to  which  I  have 
not  given  that  mature  consideration  that  would  make  me  feel 
authorized  to  state  a  position  so  as  to  hold  myself  entirely 
bound  by  it.  In  other  words,  that  question  has  never  been 
prominently  enough  before  me  to  induce  me  to  investigate 
whether  we  really  have  the  constitutional  power  to  do  it.  I 
could  investigate  it  if  I  had  sufficient  time  to  bring  myself  to  a 
conclusion  upon  that  subject,  but  I  have  not  done  so,  and  I 
say  so  frankly  to  you  here  and  to  Judge  Douglas.  I  must  say, 
however,  that  if  I  should  be  of  opinion  that  Congress  does 
possess  the  constitutional  power  to  abolish  the  slave-trade 
among  the  different  States,  I  should  still  not  be  in  favor  of 
the  exercise  of  that  power  unless  upon  some  conservative  prin- 
ciple as  I  conceive  it,  akin  to  what  I  have  said  in  relation  to 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Now  in  all  this,  the  Judge  has  me,  and  he  has  me  on  the 
record.  I  suppose  he  had  flattered  himself  that  I  was  really 
entertaining  one  set  of  opinions  for  one  place  and  another  set 
for  another  place — that  I  was  afraid  to  say  at  one  place  what 
I  uttered  at  another.  What  I  am  saying  here  I  suppose  I  say 
to  a  vast  audience  as  strongly  tending  to  Abolitionism  as  any 
audience  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  I  believe  I  am  saying  that 
which,  if  it  would  be  offensive  to  any  persons  and  render  them 
enemies  to  myself,  would  be  offensive  to  persons  in  this 
audience. 

I  now  proceed  to  propound  to  the  Judge  the  interrogatories 
so  far  as  I  have  framed  them.  I  will  bring  forward  a  new 
installment  when  I  get  them  ready.  I  will  bring  them  forward 
now,  only  reaching  to  number  four. 

Question  1.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by  means  en- 
tirely unobjectionable  in  all  other  respects,  adopt  a  State  con- 
stitution, and  ask  admission  into  the  Union  under  it,  before 


158  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

they  have  the  requisite  number  of  inhabitants  according  to 
the  English  bill — some  ninety-three  thousand — will  you  vote 
to  admit  them  ? 

Q.  2.  Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory  in  any 
lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of 
a  State  Constitution? 

Q.  3.  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  shall 
decide  that  States  can  not  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits, 
are  you  in  favor  of  acquiescing  in,  adopting,  and  following 
such  decision  as  a  rule  of  political  action? 

Q.  4.  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  territory, 
in  disregard  of  how  such  acquisition  may  affect  the  nation  on 
the  slavery  question?    .    .    . 

Go  on,  Judge  Douglas. 

Douglas  replies  (1)  that  as  a  rule  he  does  not  believe  in  ad- 
mitting States  with  less  than  the  statutory  population  but  is 
willing  to  make  an  exception  of  Kansas  and  will  admit  it  at 
once  no  matter  whether  the  people  are  for  slavery  or  freedom. 
Douglas  goes  on  (2)  to  propound  what  at  once  becomes  famous 
as  the  "Freeport  Doctrine"  namely,  that  while  Congress  has 
no  right  to  close  a  Territory  to  slavery  the  people  of  the  Terri- 
tory may  "by  unfriendly  legislation  effectively  prevent  the  in- 
troduction of  it  into  their  midst"  The  question  (3)  whether  he 
would  acquiesce  in  an  hypothetical  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  opening  the  Free  States  to  slavery  is  denounced  by 
Douglas  as  preposterous  and  is  squarely  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive. Douglas  goes  on  (4)  to  describe  Lincoln's  closing  ques- 
tion on  his  attitude  toward  new  acquisitions  of  territory  as 
"very  ingeniously  and  cunningly  put"  He  meets  it  zvith  these 
words:  "just  as  fast  as  our  interests  and  our  destiny  require 
additional  territory  in  the  North,  in  the  South,  or  on  the  islands 
of  the  ocean,  I  am  for  it,  and  when  we  acquire  it  will  leave  the 


AGE4Q]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  159 

people  according  to  the  Nebraska  bill,  free  to  do  as  they  please 
on  the  subject  of  slavery  and  every  other  subject/' 

September  3rd.  (To  Doctor  William  Fithian.)  You  will 
see  by  the  Journal  that  I  have  been  appointed  to  speak  at  Dan- 
ville on  the  22nd  of  Sept. — the  day  after  Douglas  speaks  there. 
My  recent  experience  shows  that  speaking  at  the  same  place 
the  next  day  after  D.  is  the  very  thing — it  is,  in  fact,  a  con- 
cluding speech  on  him.  Give  full  notice  to  all  surrounding 
country. 

Acting  on  his  plan  of  supplementing  the  debates  by  inde- 
pendent speeches  attacking  Douglas,  Lincoln  in  a  speech  at 
Clinton  coins  his  most  famous  epigram. 

8th.    At  Clinton. 

You  can  fool  all  the  people  some  of  the  time  and  some  of 
the  people  all  of  the  time,  but  you  can  not  fool  all  the  people  all 
of  the  time. 

Douglas  will  tell  a  lie  to  ten  thousand  people  one  day,  even 
though  he  knows  he  may  have  to  deny  it  to  five  thousand  the 
next. 

15th.     At  Jonesboro. 

There  is  very  much  in  the  principles  that  Judge  Douglas 
has  enunciated  that  I  most  cordially  approve,  and  over  which 
I  shall  have  no  controversy  with  him.  In  so  far  as  he  has  in- 
sisted that  all  the  States  have  the  right  to  do  exactly  as  they 
please  about  all  their  domestic  relations,  including  that  of 
slavery,  I  agree  entirely  with  him. 

While  I  am  upon  this  subject,  I  will  make  some  answers 
briefly  to  certain  propositions  that  Judge  Douglas  has  put.  He 
says,  "Why  can't  this  Union  endure  permanently,  half  slave 
and  half  free?"  I  have  said  that  I  supposed  it  could  not,  and 
I  will  try,  before  this  new  audience,  to  give  briefly  some  of  the 
reasons  for  entertaining  that  opinion.     Another  form  of  his 


160  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

question  is,  "Why  can't  we  let  it  stand  as  our  fathers  placed 
it?"  That  is  the  exact  difficulty  between  us.  I  say,  that 
Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  have  changed  it  from  the  posi- 
tion in  which  our  fathers  originally  placed  it.  I  say,  in  the  way 
our  fathers  originally  left  the  slavery  question,  the  institution 
was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  and  the  public  mind 
rested  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinc- 
tion. I  say  when  this  Government  was  first  established,  it  was 
the  policy  of  its  founders  to  prohibit  the  spread  of  slavery  into 
the  new  Territories  of  the  United  States,  where  it  had  not 
existed.  But  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  have  broken  up 
that  policy,  and  placed  it  upon  a  new  basis  by  which  it  is  to 
become  national  and  perpetual.  All  I  have  asked  or  desired 
anywhere  is  that  it  should  be  placed  back  again  upon  the  basis 
that  the  fathers  of  our  Government  originally  placed  it  upon.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  it  would  become  extinct,  for  all  time  to 
come,  if  we  but  readopted  the  policy  of  the  fathers  by  restrict- 
ing it  to  the  limits  it  has  already  covered — restricting  it  from 
the  new  Territories. 

I  do  not  wish  to  dwell  at  great  length  on  this  branch  of  the 
subject  at  this  time,  but  allow  me  to  repeat  one  thing  that  I 
have  stated  before.  Brooks,  the  man  who  assaulted  Senator 
Sumner  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  and  who  was  complimented 
with  dinners,  and  silver  pitchers,  and  gold-headed  canes,  and 
a  good  many  other  things  for  that  fact,  in  one  of  his  speeches 
declared  that  when  this  Government  was  originally  established, 
nobody  expected  that  the  institution  of  slavery  would  last  until 
this  day.  That  was  but  the  opinion  of  one  man,  but  it  was 
such  an  opinion  as  we  can  never  get  from  Judge  Douglas,  or 
anybody  in  favor  of  slavery  in  the  North  at  all.  You  can 
sometimes  get  it  from  a  Southern  man.  He  said  at  the  same 
time  that  the  framers  of  our  Government  did  not  have  the 
knowledge  that  experience  has  taught  us — that  experience  and 
the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  have  taught  us  that  the  perpetu- 


age  49]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  161 

ation  of  slavery  is  a  necessity.  He  insisted,  therefore,  upon  its 
being  changed  from  the  basis  upon  which  the  fathers  of  the 
Government  left  it  to  the  basis  of  its  perpetuation  and 
nationalization. 

I  insist  that  this  is  the  difference  between  Judge  Douglas 
and  myself — and  that  Judge  Douglas  is  helping  that  change 
along.  I  insist  upon  this  Government  being  placed  where  our 
fathers  originally  placed  it. 

At  Freeport  I  answered  several  interrogatories  that  had 
been  propounded  to  me  by  Judge  Douglas  at  the  Ottawa  meet- 
ing. At  the  same  time,  I  propounded  four  interrogatories  to 
him,  claiming  it  as  a  right  that  he  should  answer  as  many  inter- 
rogatories for  me  as  I  did  for  him,  and  I  would  reserve  myself 
for  a  future  installment  when  I  got  them  ready. 

I  propose  to  give  the  Judge  my  fifth  interrogatory,  which 
he  may  take  and  answer  at  his  leisure.  My  fifth  interrogatory 
is  this : 

If  the  slave-holding  citizens  of  a  United  States  Territory 
should  need  and  demand  Congressional  legislation  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  slave  property  in  such  Territory,  would  you,  as 
a  member  of  Congress,  vote  for  or  against  such  legislation? 

(Judge  Douglas:  Will  you  repeat  that?  I  want  to  answer 
that  question.) 

If  the  slave-holding  citizens  of  a  United  States  Territory 
should  need  and  demand  Congressional  legislation  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  slave  property  in  such  Territory,  would  you, 
as  a  member  of  Congress,  vote  for  or  against  such  legislation? 

In  his  rejoinder  at  Jonesboro,  Douglas  replies  to  Lincoln's 
new  question  by  saying:  "I  answer  him  that  it  is  a  fundamental 
article  in  the  Democratic  creed  that  there  should  be  non-inter- 
ference and  non-intervention  by  Congress  with  slavery  in  the 
States  or  Territories.  Mr.  Lincoln  could  have  found  an  answer 
to  his  question  in  the  Cincinnati  platform,  if  he  had  desired  it. 


1 62  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

The  Democratic  party  have  always  stood  by  that  great  principle 
of  non-interference  and  non-intervention  by  Congress  with 
slavery  in  the  States  and  Territories  alike,  and  I  stand  on  that 
platform  now/' 

18th.    At  Charleston. 

It  will  be  very  difficult  for  an  audience  as  large  as  this  to 
hear  distinctly  what  a  speaker  says,  and  consequently  it  is  im- 
portant that  as  profound  silence  be  preserved  as  possible. 

While  I  was  at  the  hotel  to-day,  an  elderly  gentleman  called 
upon  me  to  know  whether  I  was  really  in  favor  of  producing 
a  perfect  equality  between  the  negroes  and  white  people.  While 
I  had  not  proposed  to  myself  on  this  occasion  to  say  much  on 
that  subject,  yet  as  the  question  was  asked  me  I  thought  I 
would  occupy  perhaps  five  minutes  in  saying  something  in  re- 
gard to  it.  I  will  say  then  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in 
favor  of  bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  political 
equality  of  the  white  and  black  races — that  I  am  not,  nor  ever 
have  been,  in  favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors  of  negroes,  nor 
of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office,  nor  to  inter-marry  with 
white  people ;  and  I  say  in  addition  to  this  that  there  is  a  physi- 
cal difference  between  the  white  and  black  races  which  I  believe 
will  forever  forbid  the  two  races  living  together  on  terms  of 
social  and  political  equality.  And  inasmuch  as  they  can  not 
so  live,  while  they  do  remain  together  there  must  be  the  posi- 
tion of  superior  and  inferior,  and  I  as  much  as  any  other  man 
am  in  favor  of  having  the  superior  position  assigned  to  the 
white  race.  I  say  upon  this  occasion  I  do  not  perceive  that 
because  the  white  man  is  to  have  the  superior  position  the 
negro  should  be  denied  everything.  I  do  not  understand  that 
because  I  do  not  want  a  negro  woman  for  a  slave  I  must 
necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I 
can  just  let  her  alone.  I  am  now  in  my  fiftieth  year,  and  I 
certainly  never  have  had  a  black  woman  for  either  a  slave  or  a 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  163 

wife.  So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for  us  to  get  along 
without  making  either  slaves  or  wives  of  negroes.  I  will  add 
to  this  that  I  have  never  seen,  to  my  knowledge,  a  man,  woman, 
or  child  who  was  in  favor  of  producing  a  perfect  equality, 
social  and  political,  between  negroes  and  white  men.  I  recol- 
lect of  but  one  distinguished  instance  that  I  ever  heard  of  so 
frequently  as  to  be  entirely  satisfied  of  its  correctness — and 
that  is  the  case  of  Judge  Douglas's  old  friend  Colonel  Richard 
M.  Johnson.  I  will  also  add  to  the  remarks  I  have  made  (for 
I  am  not  going  to  enter  at  large  upon  this  subject),  that  I  have 
never  had  the  least  apprehension  that  I  or  my  friends  would 
marry  negroes  if  there  was  no  law  to  keep  them  from  it;  but 
as  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  seem  to  be  in  great  apprehen- 
sion that  they  might,  if  there  was  no  law  to  keep  them  from  it, 
I  give  him  the  most  solemn  pledge  that  I  will  to  the  very  last, 
stand  by  the  law  of  this  State,  which  forbids  the  marrying  of 
white  people  with  negroes.  I  will  add  one  further  word  which 
is  this;  that  I  do  not  understand  that  there  is  any  place  where 
an  alteration  of  the  social  and  political  relations  of  the  negro 
and  the  white  man  can  be  made  except  in  the  State  Legisla- 
ture— not  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States — and  as  I  do 
not  really  apprehend  the  approach  of  any  such  thing  myself, 
and  as  Judge  Douglas  seems  to  be  in  constant  horror  that 
some  such  danger  is  rapidly  approaching,  I  propose,  as  the  best 
means  to  prevent  it,  that  the  Judge  be  kept  at  home  and  placed 
in  the  State  Legislature  to  fight  the  measure.  I  do  not  propose 
dwelling  longer  at  this  time  on  the  subject. 

In  his  Freeport  Doctrine  Douglas  has  done  exactly  what 
Lincoln  had  aimed  to  make  him  do — as  foreshadowed  in  the 
letter  to  Henry  Asbury,  Jidy  thirty-first.  Douglas,  by  first 
asserting  that  the  people  of  a  territory  have  no  constitutional 
right  to  exclude  slavery  and  then  admitting  that  they  can 
always  find  a  way  to  do  so  if  they  wish,  has  given  Lincoln  the 


164  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1858 

opportunity  to  accuse  him  of  duplicity.  Lincoln  now  has 
Douglas  where  he  wants  him  and  proceeds  to  drive  him  further 
and  further  into  the  corner. 

Douglas  makes  a  desperate  attempt  to  save  himself  and 
shift  the  issue  by  renewing  his  criticism  of  Lincoln's  record 
during  the  Mexican  War. 

At  Charleston. 

It  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  a  half-hour  answer  to 
a  speech  of  an  hour  and  a  half  can  be  but  a  very  hurried  one. 
I  shall  only  be  able  to  touch  upon  a  few  of  the  points  suggested 
by  Judge  Douglas,  and  give  them  a  brief  attention,  while  I  shall 
have  to  totally  omit  others  for  the  want  of  time. 

Judge  Douglas  complains,  at  considerable  length,  about  a 
disposition  on  the  part  of  Trumbull  and  myself  to  attack  him 
personally.  I  want  to  attend  to  that  suggestion  a  moment.  I 
don't  want  to  be  unjustly  accused  of  dealing  illiberally  or  un- 
fairly with  an  adversary,  either  in  court,  or  in  a  political  can- 
vass, or  anywhere  else.  I  would  despise  myself  if  I  supposed 
myself  ready  to  deal  less  liberally  with  an  adversary  than  I  was 
willing  to  be  treated  myself.  Judge  Douglas,  in  a  general  way, 
without  putting  it  in  a  direct  shape,  revives  the  old  charge 
against  me  in  reference  to  the  Mexican  War.  He  does  not 
take  the  responsibility  of  putting  it  in  a  very  definite  form, 
but  makes  a  general  reference  to  it.  That  charge  is  more  than 
ten  years  old.  He  complains  of  Trumbull  and  myself,  because 
he  says  we  bring  charges  against  him  one  or  two  years  old. 
He  knows,  too,  that  in  regard  to  the  Mexican  war  story,  the 
more  respectable  papers  of  his  own  party  throughout  the  State 
have  been  compelled  to  take  it  back  and  acknowledge  that  it 
was  a  lie. 

(Here  Mr.  Lincoln  turns  to  the  crowd  on  the  platform,  and 
selecting  Honorable  Orlando  B.  Ficklin,  leads  him  forward  and 
says:) 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  165 

I  do  not  mean  to  do  anything  with  Mr.  Ficklin,  except  to 
present  his  face  and  tell  you  that  he  personally  knows  it  to  be 
a  lie!  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  only  time  I  was  in 
Congress,  and  he  knows  that  whenever  there  was  an  attempt  to 
procure  a  vote  of  mine  which  would  indorse  the  origin  and 
justice  of  the  war,  I  refused  to  give  such  indorsement,  and 
voted  against  it ;  but  I  never  voted  against  the  supplies  for  the 
army,  and  he  knows,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  that  whenever  a 
dollar  was  asked  by  way  of  compensation  or  otherwise,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  soldiers,  /  gave  all  the  votes  that  Ficklin  or 
Douglas  did,  and  perhaps  more. 

(Mr.  Ficklin:  My  friends,  I  wish  to  say  this  in  reference 
to  the  matter.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself  are  just  as  good  per- 
sonal friends  as  Judge  Douglas  and  myself.  In  reference  to 
this  Mexican  War,  my  recollection  is  that  when  Ashman's  res- 
olution [amendment]  was  offered  by  Mr.  Ashman  of  Mass- 
achusetts, in  which  he  declared  that  the  Mexican  War  was 
unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  commenced  by  the  Presi- 
dent— my  recollection  is  that  Mr.  Lincoln  voted  for  that  res- 
olution.) 

That  is  the  truth.  Now  you  all  remember  that  was  a 
resolution  censuring  the  President  for  the  manner  in  which 
the  war  was  begun.  You  know  they  have  charged  that  I 
voted  against  the  supplies,  by  which  I  starved  the  soldiers  who 
were  out  fighting  the  battles  of  their  country.  I  say  that 
Ficklin  knows  it  is  false.  When  that  charge  was  brought  for- 
ward by  the  Chicago  Times,  the  Springfield  Register  (Doug- 
las organ)  reminded  the  Times  that  the  charge  really  applied  to 
John  Henry  and  I  do  know  that  John  Henry  is  now  making 
speeches  and  fiercely  battling  for  Judge  Douglas.  If  the  Judge 
now  says  that  he  offers  this  as  a  sort  of  a  set-off  to  what  I  said 
to-day  in  reference  to  Trumbull's  charge,  then  I  remind  him 
that  he  made  this  charge  before  I  said  a  word  about  Trum- 
bull's.   He  brought  this  forward  at  Ottawa,  the  first  time  we 


1 66  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

met  face  to  face ;  and  in  the  opening  speech  that  Judge  Doug- 
las made,  he  attacked  me  in  regard  to  a  matter  ten  years  old. 
Isn't  he  a  pretty  man  to  be  whining  about  people  making 
charges  against  him  only  two  years  old! 

I  take  it  these  people  have  some  sense ;  they  see  plainly  that 
Judge  Douglas  is  playing  cuttle-fish,  a  small  species  of  fish 
that  has  no  mode  of  defending  itself  when  pursued  except  by 
throwing  out  a  black  fluid,  which  makes  the  water  so  dark  the 
enemy  can  not  see  it,  and  thus  it  escapes.  Ain't  the  Judge 
playing  the  cuttle-fish? 

October  1st.  (Note  for  a  speech.)  Allow  me  now,  in  my 
own  way,  to  state  with  what  aims  and  objects  I  did  enter  upon 
this  campaign.  I  claim  no  extraordinary  exemption  from  per- 
sonal ambition.  That  I  like  preferment  as  well  as  the  average 
of  men  may  be  admitted.  But  I  protest  I  have  not  entered 
upon  this  hard  contest  solely,  or  even  chiefly,  for  a  mere  per- 
sonal object.  I  clearly  see,  as  I  think,  a  powerful  plot  to  make 
slavery  universal  and  perpetual  in  this  nation.  The  effort  to 
carry  that  plot  through  will  be  persistent  and  long  continued, 
extending  far  beyond  the  senatorial  term  for  which  Judge 
Douglas  and  I  are  just  now  struggling.  I  enter  upon  the  con- 
test to  contribute  my  humble  and  temporary  mite  in  opposition 
to  that  effort. 

(Note  for  a  speech.)  The  sum  of  pro-slavery  theology 
seems  to  be  this :  "Slavery  is  not  universally  right,  nor  yet 
universally  wrong;  it  is  better  for  some  people  to  be  slaves; 
and,  in  such  cases,  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  they  be  such." 

Certainly  there  is  no  contending  against  the  will  of  God; 
but  still  there  is  some  difficulty  in  ascertaining  and  applying  it 
to  particular  cases.  For  instance,  we  will  suppose  the  Rev- 
erend Doctor  Ross  has  a  slave  named  Sambo,  and  the  question 
is,  "Is  it  the  will  of  God  that  Sambo  shall  remain  a  slave,  or 
be  set  free?"     The  Almighty  gives  no  audible  answer  to  the 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  167 

question,  and  His  revelation,  the  Bible,  gives  none — or  at  most 
none  but  such  as  admits  of  a  squabble  as  to  its  meaning;  no 
one  thinks  of  asking  Sambo's  opinion  on  it. 

So  at  last  it  comes  to  this,  that  Doctor  Ross  is  to  decide 
the  question;  and  while  he  considers  it,  he  sits  in  the  shade, 
with  gloves  on  his  hands,  and  subsists  on  the  bread  that  Sambo 
is  earning  in  the  burning  sun.  If  he  decides  that  God  wills 
Sambo  to  continue  a  slave,  he  thereby  retains  his  own  com- 
fortable position;  but  if  he  decides  that  God  wills  Sambo  to  be 
free,  he  therefore  has  to  walk  out  of  the  shade,  throw  off  his 
gloves,  and  delve  for  his  own  bread.  Will  Doctor  Ross  be 
actuated  by  the  perfect  impartiality  which  has  ever  been  con- 
sidered most  favorable  to  correct  decisions? 
?th.    At  Galesburg. 

This  is  but  an  opinion,  and  the  opinion  of  one  very  hum- 
ble man :  but  it  is  my  opinion  that  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  as 
it  is,  never  would  have  been  made  in  its  present  form  if  the 
party  that  made  it  had  not  been  sustained  previously  by  the 
elections.  My  own  opinion  is  that  the  new  Dred  Scott  deci- 
sion* deciding  against  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  States 
to  exclude  slavery,  will  never  be  made  if  that  party  is  not  sus- 
tained by  the  elections.  I  believe,  further,  that  it  is  just  as 
sure  to  be  made  as  to-morrow  is  to  come,  if  that  party  shall 
be  sustained.  I  have  said  upon  a  former  occasion,  and  I  repeat 
it  now,  that  the  course  of  argument  that  Judge  Douglas  makes 
use  of  upon  this  subject  (I  charge  not  his  motives  in  this) 
is  preparing  the  public  mind  for  that  new  Dred  Scott  decision. 
I  have  asked  him  again  to  point  out  to  me  the  reasons  for  his 
first  adherence  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision  as  it  is.  I  have 
turned  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  General  Jackson  differed 
with  him  in  regard  to  the  political  obligation  of  a  Supreme 
Court  decision.     Jefferson  said  that  "judges  are  as  honest  as 


*This  hypothetical  decision,  it  should  be  remembered,  is  purely  an  argu- 
mentative device,  a  sort  of  reductio  ad  absurdam. 


1 68  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

other  men,  and  not  more  so."  And  he  said,  substantially, 
that  whenever  a  free  people  should  give  an  absolute  submission 
to  any  department  of  government,  retaining  for  themselves 
no  appeal  from  it,  their  liberties  were  gone. 

13  th.    At  Quincy. 

Now  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
I  wish  to  say  a  word  or  two.  After  all,  the  Judge  will  not 
say  whether,  if  a  decision  is  made  holding  that  the  people  of  the 
States  can  not  exclude  slavery,  he  will  support  it  or  not.  He 
obstinately  refuses  to  say  what  he  will  do  in  that  case.  The 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  obstinately  refuse  to  say  what 
they  would  do  on  this  subject.  Before  I  reminded  him  that 
at  Galesburg  he  said  the  judges  had  expressly  declared  the 
contrary,  and  you  remember  that  in  my  opening  speech  I  told 
him  I  had  the  book  containing  that  decision  here,  and  I  would 
thank  him  to  lay  his  finger  on  the  place  where  any  such  thing 
was  said.  He  has  occupied  his  hour  and  a  half,  and  he  has  not 
ventured  to  try  to  sustain  his  assertion.  He  never  will.  But 
he  is  desirous  of  knowing  how  we  are  going  to  reverse  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  Judge  Douglas  ought  to  know  how. 
Did  not  he  and  his  political  friends  find  a  way  to  reverse  the 
decision  of  that  same  court  in  favor  of  the  constitutionality  of 
the  National  Bank  ?  Didn't  they  find  a  way  to  do  it  so  effec- 
tually that  they  have  reversed  it  as  completely  as  any  decision 
ever  was  reversed,  so  far  as  its  practical  operation  is  concerned  ? 
And  let  me  ask  you,  didn't  Judge  Douglas  find  a  way  to  reverse 
the  decision  of  our  Supreme  Court,  when  it  decided  that  Car- 
lin's  father — old  Governor  Carlin — had  not  the  constitutional 
power  to  remove  a  secretary  of  state?  Did  he  not  appeal  to 
the  "mobs,"  as  he  calls  them?  Did  he  not  make  speeches  in 
the  lobby  to  show  how  villainous  that  decision  was,  and  how 
it  ought  to  be  overthrown?  Did  he  not  succeed,  too,  in  get- 
ting an  act  passed  by  the  Legislature  to  have  it  overthrown? 
And  didn't  he  himself  sit  down  on  that  bench  as  one  of  the 


age  49]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  169 

five  added  judges  who  were  to  overslaugh  the  four  old  ones — 
getting  his  name  of  "Judge"  in  that  way  and  in  no  other? 
If  there  is  a  villainy  in  using  disrespect  or  making  opposition  to 
Supreme  Court  decisions,  I  commend  it  to  Judge  Douglas's 
earnest  consideration.  I  know  of  no  man  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois who  ought  to  know  so  well  about  how  much  villainy 
it  takes  to  oppose  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  as  our 
honorable  friend,  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

15th,     At  Alton. 

Judge  Douglas  knows  that  we  are  before  an  audience  hav- 
ing strong  sympathies  southward  by  relationship,  place  of 
birth,  and  so  on.  He  desires  to  place  me  in  an  extremely 
Abolition  attitude.  He  read  upon  a  former  occasion,  and 
alludes  without  reading  to-day,  to  a  portion  of  a  speech  which 
I  delivered  in  Chicago.  In  his  quotations  from  that  speech,  as 
he  has  made  them  upon  former  occasions,  the  extracts  were 
taken  in  such  a  way  as,  I  suppose,  brings  them  within  the 
definition  of  what  is  called  garbling — taking  portions  of  a 
speech  which,  when  taken  by  themselves,  do  not  present  the 
entire  sense  of  the  speaker  as  expressed  at  the  time.  I  propose, 
therefore,  out  of  that  same  speech,  to  show  how  one  portion  of 
it  which  he  skipped  over  (taking  an  extract  before  and  an 
extract  after,)  will  give  a  different  idea,  and  the  true  idea  I 
intended  to  convey. 

Now  I  have  upon  all  occasions  declared  as  strongly  as 
Judge  Douglas  against  the  disposition  to  interfere  with  the 
existing  institution  of  slavery. 

The  principle  upon  which  I  have  insisted  in  this  canvass,  is 
in  relation  to  laying  the  foundations  of  new  societies.  I  have 
never  sought  to  apply  these  principles  to  the  old  States  for  the 
purpose  of  abolishing  slavery  in  those  States.  It  is  nothing 
but  a  miserable  perversion  of  what  I  have  said,  to  assume  that 
I  have  declared  Missouri,  or  any  other  slave  State,  shall  eman- 
cipate her  slaves.     I  have  proposed  no  such  thing. 


lyo  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

I  confess,  when  I  propose  a  certain  measure  of  policy,  it 
is  not  enough  for  me  that  I  do  not  intend  anything  evil  in 
the  result,  but  it  is  incumbent  on  me  to  show  that  it  has  not 
a  tendency  to  that  result.  I  have  met  Judge  Douglas  in  that 
point  of  view.  I  have  not  only  made  the  declaration  that  I  do 
not  mean  to  produce  a  conflict  between  the  States,  but  I  have 
tried  to  show  by  fair  reasoning,  and  I  think  I  have  shown 
to  the  minds  of  fair  men,  that  I  propose  nothing  but  what  has 
a  most  peaceful  tendency.  The  quotation  that  I  happened  to 
make  in  that  Springfield  speech,  that  "a  house  divided  against 
itself  can  not  stand,"  and  which  has  proved  so  offensive  to  the 
Judge,  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  same  thing.  He  tries  to 
show  that  variety  in  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  different 
States  is  necessary  and  indispensable.    I  do  not  dispute  it. 

And  I  understand  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  or  anybody 
else,  that  these  mutual  accommodations  are  the  cements  which 
bind  together  the  different  parts  of  this  Union — that  instead 
of  being  a  thing  to  "divide  the  house" — figuratively  express- 
ing the  Union — they  tend  to  sustain  it;  they  are  the  props  of 
the  house  tending  always  to  hold  it  up. 

I  understand  I  have  ten  minutes  yet.  I  will  employ  it  in 
saying  something  about  this  argument  Judge  Douglas  uses, 
while  he  sustains  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  that  the  people  of 
the  Territories  can  still  somehow  exclude  slavery.  The  first 
thing  I  ask  attention  to  is  the  fact  that  Judge  Douglas  con- 
stantly said,  before  the  decision,  that  whether  they  could  or  not, 
was  a  question  for  the  Supreme  Court.  But  after  the  court 
has  made  the  decision,  he  virtually  says  it  is  not  a  question 
for  the  Supreme  Court,  but  for  the  people.  And  how  is  it  he 
tells  us  they  can  exclude  it?  He  says  it  needs  "police  reg- 
ulations," and  that  admits  of  "unfriendly  legislation."  Al- 
though it  is  a  right  established  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  take  a  slave  into  a  Territory  of  the  United 
States  and  hold  him  as  property,  yet  unless  the  Territorial 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  171 

Legislature  will  give  friendly  legislation,  and,  more  especially, 
if  they  adopt  friendly  legislation,  they  can  practically  exclude 
him.  Now,  without  meeting  this  proposition  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  pass  to  consider  the  real  constitutional  obligation.  Let 
me  take  the  gentleman  who  looks  me  in  the  face  before  me, 
and  let  us  suppose  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  Territorial  Legis- 
lature. The  first  thing  he  will  do  will  be  to  swear  that  he  will 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  His  neighbor 
by  his  side  in  the  Territory  has  slaves  and  needs  Territorial 
Legislation  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  that  constitutional  right. 
Can  he  withhold  the  legislation  which  his  neighbor  needs  for 
the  enjoyment  of  a  right  which  is  fixed  in  his  favor  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  which  he  has  sworn  to  sup- 
port? Can  he  withhold  it  without  violating  his  oath?  And 
more  especially,  can  he  pass  unfriendly  legislation  to  violate  his 
oath? 

Why,  this  is  a  monstrous  sort  of  talk  about  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States!  There  has  never  been  as  outland- 
ish or  lawless  a  doctrine  from  the  mouth  of  any  respectable 
man  on  earth.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  a  constitutional  right  to 
hold  slaves  in  a  Territory  of  the  United  States.  I  believe  the 
decision  was  improperly  made,  and  I  go  for  reversing  it. 
Judge  Douglas  is  furious  against  those  who  go  for  reversing 
a  decision.  But  he  is  for  legislating  it  out  of  all  force  while 
the  law  itself  stands.  I  repeat  that  there  has  never  been  so 
monstrous  a  doctrine  from  the  mouth  of  a  respectable  man. 

I  suppose  most  of  us  (I  know  it  of  myself)  believe  that 
the  people  of  the  Southern  States  are  entitled  to  a  Congres- 
sional Fugitive  Slave  law — that  it  is  a  right  fixed  in  the  Con- 
stitution. But  it  can  not  be  made  available  to  them  without 
congressional  legislation.  In  the  Judge's  language,  it  is  a 
"barren  right"  which  needs  legislation  before  it  can  become 
efficient  and  valuable  to  the  persons  to  whom  it  is  guaranteed. 
And,  as  the  right  is  constitutional,   I  agree  that  the  legis- 


172  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

lation  shall  be  granted  to  it — and  that  not  that  we  like  the 
institution  of  slavery:  wa  profess  to  have  no  taste  for  run- 
ning and  catching  niggers — at  least,  I  profess  no  taste  for  that 
job  at  all.  Why  then  do  I  yield  support  to  a  Fugitive  Slave 
law?  Because  I  do  not  understand  that  the  Constitution, 
which  guarantees  that  right,  can  be  supported  without  it.  And 
if  I  believed  that  the  right  to  hold  a  slave  in  a  Territory  was 
equally  fixed  in  the  Constitution  with  the  right  to  reclaim 
fugitives,  I  should  be  bound  to  give  it  the  legislation  neces- 
sary to  support  it.  I  say  that  no  man  can  deny  his  obligation 
to  give  the  necessary  legislation  to  support  slavery  in  a  Terri- 
tory, who  believes  it  is  a  constitutional  right  to  have  it  there. 
No  man  can,  who  does  not  give  the  Abolitionists  an  argument 
to  deny  the  obligation  enjoined  by  the  Constitution  to  enact 
a  Fugitive  Slave  law.  Try  it  now.  It  is  the  strongest  Aboli- 
tion argument  ever  made.  I  say,  if  that  Dred  Scott  decision 
is  correct,  then  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  a  Territory  is  equally 
a  constitutional  right  with  the  right  of  a  slaveholder  to  have 
his  runaway  returned.  No  one  can  show  the  distinction  be- 
tween them.  The  one  is  express,  so  that  we  can  not  deny  it; 
the  other  is  construed  to  be  in  the  Constitution,  so  that  he  who 
believes  the  decision  to  be  correct  believes  in  the  right.  And  the 
man  who  argues  that  by  unfriendly  legislation,  in  spite  of  that 
constitutional  right,  slavery  may  be  driven  from  the  Terri- 
tories, can  not  avoid  furnishing  an  argument  by  which  Aboli- 
tionists may  deny  the  obligation  to  return  fugitives,  and  claim 
the  power  to  pass  laws  unfriendly  to  the  right  of  the  slave- 
holder to  reclaim  his  fugitive.  I  do  not  know  how  such  an 
argument  may  strike  a  popular  assembly  like  this,  but  I  defy 
anybody  to  go  before  a  body  of  men  whose  minds  are  edu- 
cated to  estimating  evidence  and  reasoning,  and  show  that 
there  is  an  iota  of  difference  between  the  constitutional  right 
to  reclaim  a  fugitive,  and  the  constitutional  right  to  hold  a 
slave,  in  a  Territory,   provided  this  Dred   Scott  decision  is 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  173 

correct.  I  defy  any  man  to  make  an  argument  that  will 
justify  unfriendly  legislation  to  deprive  a  slaveholder  of  his 
right  to  hold  his  slave  in  a  Territory,  that  will  not  equally,  in 
all  its  length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  furnish  an  argument  for 
nullifying  the  Fugitive  Slave  law.  Why,  there  is  not  such  an 
Abolitionist  in  the  nation  as  Douglas,  after  all. 

20th.  (To  Norman  B.  Judd.)  I  now  have  a  high  degree 
of  confidence  that  we  shall  succeed,  if  we  are  not  overrun  with 
fraudulent  votes  to  a  greater  extent  than  usual. 

I  have  a  bare  suggestion.  When  there  is  a  known  body  of 
these  voters,  could  not  a  true  man,  of  the  "detective"  class,  be 
introduced  among  them  in  disguise,  who  could,  at  the  nick  of 
time,  control  their  votes?  Think  this  over.  It  would  be  a 
great  thing,  when  this  trick  is  attempted  upon  us,  to  have  the 
saddle  come  up  on  the  other  horse. 

30th.     At  Springfield. 

To-day  closes  the  discussions  of  this  canvass.  The  plant- 
ing and  the  culture  are  over;  and  there  remains  but  the  prep- 
aration and  the  harvest. 

Ambition  has  been  ascribed  to  me.  God  knows  how  sin- 
cerely I  prayed  from  the  first  that  this  field  of  ambition  might 
not  be  opened.  I  claim  no  insensibility  to  political  honors ;  but 
to-day  could  the  Missouri  restriction  be  removed,  and  the 
whole  slavery  question  replaced  on  the  old  ground  of  "tolera- 
tion" by  necessity  where  it  exists,  with  unyielding  hostility  to 
the  spread  of  it,  on  principle,  I  would,  in  consideration,  gladly 
agree,  that  Judge  Douglas  should  never  be  out,  and  I  never  in, 
an  office,  so  long  as  we  both,  or  either,  live. 

November  2nd.  Legislature  elected  containing  fifty-four 
Douglas  men  and  forty-six  Lincoln  men. 

For  such  an  awkward  fellow  I  am  pretty  sure  footed.  It 
used  to  take  a  pretty  dexterous  man  to  throw  me.    I  remember 


174  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1858 

the  evening  of  the  day  in  1858  that  decided  the  contest  for  the 
Senate  between  Mr.  Douglas  and  myself,  was  dark,  rainy  and 
gloomy.  I  had  been  reading  the  returns  (in  the  telegraph 
office),  and  had  ascertained  that  we  had  lost  tat  Legislature, 
and  started  to  go  home.  The  path  had  been  worn  pegbacked 
and  was  slippery.  My  foot  slipped  out  from  under  me,  knock- 
ing the  other  out  of  the  way;  but  I  recovered  and  said  to 
myself,   "It's  a  slip  and  not  a  fall" 

6th.  Enthusiastic  meeting  at  Mansfield,  Ohio,  proposes 
Lincoln  as  next  Republican  candidate  for  President.  Despite 
his  defeat  by  Douglas  his  conduct  in  the  debate  has  fixed  upon 
him  the  eyes  of  the  whole  nation. 

16th.  (To  N.  B.  Judd.)  Yours  of  the  15th  is  just  re- 
ceived. I  wrote  you  the  same  day.  As  to  the  pecuniary  mat- 
ter, I  am  willing  to  pay  according  to  my  ability ;  but  I  am  the 
poorest  hand  living  to  get  others  to  pay.  I  have  been  on  ex- 
penses so  long  without  earning  anything  that  I  am  absolutely 
without  money  now  for  even  household  purposes.  Still  if  you 
can  put  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  me  toward  dis- 
charging the  debt  of  the  committee,  I  will  allow  it  when  you 
and  I  settle  the  private  matter  between  us.  This,  with  what 
I  have  already  paid,  and  with  an  outstanding  note  of  mine, 
will  exceed  my  subscription  of  five  hundred  dollars.  This, 
too,  is  exclusive  of  my  ordinary  expenses  during  the  campaign, 
all  of  which  being  added  to  my  loss  of  time  and  business,  bears 
pretty  heavily  upon  one  no  better  off  in  [this]  world's  goods 
than  I ;  but  as  I  had  the  post  of  honor,  it  is  not  for  me  to  be 
over  nice.  You  are  feeling  badly — "And  this  too  shall  pass 
away,"  never  fear. 

ipth.  Well,  the  election  is  over ;  and,  in  the  main  point,  we 
are  beaten.  Still  my  view  is  that  the  fight  must  go  on.  Let  no 
one  falter.     The  question  is  not  half  settled.     New  splits  and 


age  49]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  175 

divisions  will  soon  be  upon  our  adversaries,  and  we  shall  fuse 
again. 

As  a  general  rule,  out  of  Sangamon  as  well  as  in  it,  much 
of  the  plain  old  Democracy  is  with  us,  while  nearly  all  the  old 
exclusive  silk-stocking  Whiggery  is  against  us.  I  don't  mean 
nearly  all  the  Old  Whig  party,  but  nearly  all  of  the  nice 
exclusive  sort.  And  why  not?  There  has  been  nothing  in 
politics  since  the  Revolution  so  congenial  to  their  nature  as  the 
present  position  of  the  great  Democratic  party. 

I  am  glad  I  made  the  late  race.  It  gave  me  a  hearing  on 
the  great  and  durable  question  of  the  age,  which  I  could  have 
had  in  no  other  way ;  and  though  I  now  sink  out  of  view,  and 
shall  be  forgotten,  I  believe  I  have  made  some  marks  which 
will  tell  for  the  cause  of  civil  liberty  long  after  I  am  gone. 

20th.  (To  Dr.  C.  H.  Ray.)  I  believe,  according  to  a  let- 
ter of  yours  to  Hatch,  you  are  "feeling  like  hell  yet."  Quit 
that.  You  will  soon  feel  better.  Another  "blow  up"  is  com- 
ing; and  we  shall  have  fun  again.  Douglas  managed  to  be 
supported  both  as  the  best  instrument  to  put  down  and  to  up- 
hold the  slave  power;  but  no  ingenuity  can  long  keep  the 
antagonism  in  harmony. 

December  2nd.  I  am  absent  altogether  too  much  to  be 
a  suitable  instructor  for  a  law  student.  When  a  man  has 
reached  the  age  that  Mr.  Widner  has,  and  has  already  been 
doing  for  himself,  my  judgment  is,  that  he  reads  the  books  for 
himself  without  an  instructor.  That  is  precisely  the  way  I 
came  to  the  law.  Let  Mr.  Widner  read  Blackstone's  Com- 
mentaries, and  Chitty's  Pleadings,  Greenleaf's  Evidence, 
Story's  Equity,  and  Story's  Equity  Pleadings,  get  a  license,  and 
go  to  the  practise,  and  still  keep  reading.  That  is  my  judg- 
ment of  the  cheapest,  quickest,  and  best  way  for  Mr.  Widner  to 
make  a  lawyer  of  himself. 

nth.  Douglas  has  gene  South,  making  characteristic 
speeches,  and  seeking  to  reinstate  himself  in  that  section.    The 


176  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1858 

majority  of  the  Democratic  politicians  of  the  nation  mean  to 
kill  him ;  but  I  doubt  whether  they  will  adopt  the  aptest  way  to 
do  it.  Their  true  way  is  to  present  him  with  no  new  test,  let 
him  into  the  Charleston  convention,  and  then  out-vote  him,  and 
nominate  another.  In  that  case,  he  will  have  no  pretext  for 
bolting  the  nomination,  and  will  be  as  powerless  as  they  can 
wish.  On  the  other  hand,  if  they  push  a  Slave  Code  upon  him, 
as  a  test,  he  will  bolt  at  once,  turn  upon  us,  as  in  the  case  of 
Lecompton,  and  claim  that  all  Northern  men  shall  make  com- 
mon cause  in  electing  him  President  as  the  best  means  of 
breaking  down  the  Slave  power.  In  that  case,  the  Democratic 
party  go  into  a  minority  inevitably;  and  the  struggle  in  the 
whole  North  will  be,  as  it  was  in  Illinois  last  summer  and  fall, 
whether  the  Republican  party  can  maintain  its  identity,  or  be 
broken  up  to  form  the  tail  of  Douglas's  new  kite.  Some  of 
our  great  Republican  doctors  will  then  have  a  splendid  chance 
to  swallow  the  pills  they  so  eagerly  prescribed  for  us  last 
spring.  Still  I  hope  they  will  not  swallow  them ;  and  although 
I  do  not  feel  that  I  owe  the  said  doctors  much,  I  will  help  them, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  to  reject  the  said  pills.  The  truth  is, 
the  Republican  principle  can  in  no  wise  live  with  Douglas ;  and 
it  is  arrant  folly  now,  as  it  was  last  spring,  to  waste  time,  and 
scatter  labor  already  performed,  in  dallying  with  him. 

1 2th.  I  expect  the  result  of  the  election  went  hard  with 
you.  So  it  did  with  me,  too,  perhaps  not  quite  so  hard  as  you 
may  have  supposed.  I  have  an  abiding  faith  that  we  shall  beat 
them  in  the  long  run. 


1859 

Though  confident  that  his  party  is  growing  in  strength,  he 
opens  the  new  year  despondent  about  his  own  prospects.  He 
appears  to  put  little  value  upon  the  applause  called  forth  by  the 
debates. 

January  6th.  Well,  whatever  happens  I  expect  every  one 
to  desert  me  now  but  Billy  Herndon. 

2pth.  Our  friends  here  from  different  parts  of  the  State, 
in  and  out  of  the  Legislature,  are  united,  resolute,  and  de- 
termined and  I  think  it  is  almost  certain  that  we  shall  be  far 
better  organized  for  i860  than  ever  before. 

Other  people  by  no  means  think  Lincoln  a  dead  dog. 
Trumbull  fears  a  contest  with  him  over  Trumbull 's  place  in  the 
Senate. 

February  3rd.  (To  Lyman  Trumbull.)  And  I  beg  to 
assure  you,  beyond  all  possible  cavil,  that  you  can  scarcely 
be  more  anxious  to  be  sustained  two  years  hence  than  I  ara 
that  you  shall  be  so  sustained.  I  can  not  conceive  it  possible 
for  me  to  be  a  rival  of  yours,  or  to  take  sides  against  you  in 
favor  of  any  rival.  Nor  do  I  think  there  is  much  danger  of  the 
old  Democratic  and  Whig  elements  of  our  party  breaking  into 
opposing  factions.    They  certainly  shall  not,  if  I  can  prevent  it. 

Again  his  profession  demands  his  time. 

March  2nd.     Chicago. 

At  last  I  am  here  to  give  some  attention  to  the  suit  of 
Haines  vs.  Talcott  and  others. 

177 


178  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1859 

3rd.  (To  one  of  his  clients.)  I  do  not  think  there  is  the 
least  use  of  doing  any  more  with  the  law  suit.  I  not  only  do 
not  think  you  are  sure  to  gain  it,  but  I  do  think  you  are  sure 
to  lose  it.     Therefore  the  sooner  it  ends  the  better. 

He  has  evidence  that  his  political  reputation  still  lives. 

5th.     Springfield. 

(To  Thomas  J.  Pickett.)  Yours  of  the  2nd  instant,  invit- 
ing me  to  deliver  my  lecture  on  "Inventions"  in  Rock  Island, 
is  at  hand,  and  I  regret  to  be  unable  from  press  of  business  to 
comply  therewith.  In  regard  to  the  other  matter  you  speak  of, 
I  beg  that  you  will  not  give  it  a  further  mention.  Seriously,  I 
do  not  think  I  am  fit  for  Presidency. 

It  is  proposed  to  publish  his  speeches. 

26th.  (To  William  A.  Ross.)  I  would  really  be  pleased 
with  a  publication  substantially  as  you  proposed.  But  I  would 
suggest  a  few  variations  from  your  plan.  I  would  not  include 
the  Republican  platform ;  because  that  would  give  the  work  a 
one-sided  party  cast,  unless  the  Democratic  platform  is  also 
included. 

I  would  not  take  all  the  speeches  from  the  Press-Tribune; 
but  I  would  take  mine  from  that  paper;  and  those  of  Judge 
Douglas  from  the  Chicago  Times. 

My  scrap  book  would  be  the  best  thing  to  print  from; 
still,  as  it  cost  me  a  good  deal  of  labor  to  get  it  up,  and  I  am 
very  desirous  to  preserve  the  substance  of  it  permanently,  I 
would  not  let  it  go  out  of  my  control.  If  an  arrangement 
could  be  made  to  print  it  in  Springfield,  under  my  supervision, 
I  would  allow  the  scrap  book  to  be  used,  and  would  claim  no 
share  in  any  profit  that  could  be  made  out  of  the  publication. 

28th.     (To  William  M.  Morris.)     Your  note  inviting  me 


age  50]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  179 

to  deliver  a  lecture  at  Galesburg,  is  received.  I  regret  to  say 
I  can  not  do  so  now :  I  must  stick  to  the  courts  a  while.  I  read 
a  sort  of  lecture  to  three  different  audiences  during  the  last 
month  and  this ;  but  I  did  so  under  circumstances  which  made 
it  a  waste  of  no  time  whatever. 

There  is  gratifying  evidence  that  in  a  way  he  has  become 
a  national  figure. 

April  6th.  (To  several  gentlemen  of  Boston.)  Your 
kind  note  inviting  me  to  attend  a  festival  in  Boston,  on  the 
28th  instant,  in  honor  of  the  birthday  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
was  duly  received.  My  engagements  are  such  that  I  can  not 
attend. 

I  remember  being  once  much  amused  at  seeing  two  partially 
intoxicated  men  engaged  in  a  fight  with  their  great  overcoats 
on,  which  fight,  after  a  long  and  rather  harmless  contest,  ended 
in  each  having  fought  himself  out  of  his  own  coat  and  into 
that  of  the  other.  If  the  two  leading  parties  of  this  day  are 
really  identical  with  the  two  in  the  days  of  Jefferson  and 
Adams,  they  have  performed  the  same  feat  as  the  two  drunken 
men. 

But  soberly,  it  is  now  no  child's  play  to  save  the  principles 
of  Jefferson  from  total  overthrow  in  this  nation. 

The  principles  of  Jefferson  are  the  definitions  and  axioms 
of  free  society.  And  yet  they  are  denied  and  evaded,  with 
no  small  show  of  success.  One  dashingly  calls  them  "glitter- 
ing generalities."  Another  bluntly  calls  them  "self-evident 
lies."  And  others  insidiously  argue  that  they  apply  to  "supe- 
rior races."  These  expressions,  differing  in  form,  are  iden- 
tical in  object  and  effect — the  supplanting  the  principles  of 
free  government,  and  restoring  those  of  classification,  caste, 
and  legitimacy.  They  would  delight  a  convocation  of  crowned 
heads  plotting  against  the  people.    They  are  the  vanguard,  the 


180  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1859 

miners  and  the  sappers  of  returning  despotism.  We  must  re- 
pulse them  or  they  will  subjugate  us.  This  is  a  world  of  com- 
pensation ;  and  he  who  would  be  no  slave  must  consent  to  have 
no  slave.  Those  who  deny  freedom  to  others  deserve  it  not  for 
themselves,  and,  under  a  just  God,  can  not  long  retain  it.  All 
honor  to  Jefferson — to  the  man  who,  in  the  concrete  pressure  of 
a  struggle  for  national  independence  by  a  single  people,  had  the 
coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity  to  introduce  into  a  merely  rev- 
olutionary document  an  abstract  truth,  applicable  to  all  men  and 
all  times,  and  so  to  embalm  it  there  that  to-day  and  in  all  com- 
ing days  it  shall  be  a  rebuke  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  very 
harbingers  of  reappearing  tyranny  and  oppression. 

As  a  detail  of  the  approaching  political  campaign  Repub- 
lican managers  take  thought  of  the  German  vote  in  Illinois. 

nth.     Springfield. 

(To  Gustave  Koerner.)  The  meeting  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee was  at  Bloomington,  and  not  here.  I  was  there  attend- 
ing court,  and,  in  common  with  several  other  outsiders,  one  of 
whom  was  Judge  Trumbull,  was  in  conference  with  the  Com- 
mittee, to  some  extent.  Judge  Trumbull  privately  mentioned 
the  subject  of  which  you  wrote  to  me,  and  requested  me  to 
prepare  a  resolution,  which  I  did.  When  I  brought  in  the 
resolution  and  read  it  to  the  Committee,  and  others  present,  in 
an  informal  way,  Judge  Trumbull  suggested  that  it  would  be 
better  to  select  some  act  of  our  adversaries,  rather  than  of  our 
friends,  upon  which  to  base  a  protest  against  any  distinction 
between  native  and  naturalized  citizens,  as  to  the  right  of 
suffrage.  This  led  to  a  little  parley.  I  was  called  from  the 
room,  the  thing  passed  from  my  mind,  and  I  do  not  know 
whether  anything  was  done  about  it  by  the  Committee.  Judge 
Trumbull  will  be  in  Belleville  when  this  reaches  you,  and  he 
probably  can  tell  you  all  about  it.    Whether  anything  was  done 


age  5o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  181 

or  not,  something  must  be,  the  next  time  the  Committee  meets, 
which  I  presume  will  be  before  long. 

An  obscure  political  movement  is  working  quietly  out  of 
sight  of  the  public.  T.  J.  Pickett,  a  newspaper  editor,  writes 
to  Lincoln:  "I  would  like  to  have  a  talk  with  you  on  political 
matters  as  to  announcing  your  name  for  the  Presidency.  My 
partner  and  myself  are  about  addressing  the  Republican  edi- 
tors of  the  State  on  the  subject  of  a  simultaneous  announce- 


1 6th.  (To  T.  J.  Pickett.)  I  must  in  candor  say  I  do  not 
think  myself  fit  for  Presidency.  I  certainly  am  flattered  and 
gratified  that  some  partial  friends  think  of  me  in  that  con- 
nection; but  I  really  think  it  best  for  our  cause  that  no  con- 
certed effort,  as  you  suggest,  should  be  made.  Let  this  be 
considered  confidential. 

May  ijth.  (To  Theodore  Canisius.)  Your  note  asking, 
in  behalf  of  yourself  and  other  German  citizens,  whether  I 
am  for  or  against  the  constitutional  provision  in  regard  to 
naturalized  citizens,  lately  adopted  by  Massachusetts,  and 
whether  I  am  for  or  against  a  fusion  of  the  Republicans,  and 
other  opposition  elements,  for  the  canvass  of  i860,  is  received. 

Massachusetts  is  a  sovereign  and  independent  State;  and 
it  is  no  privilege  of  mine  to  scold  her  for  what  she  does.  Still, 
if  from  what  she  has  done  an  inference  is  sought  to  be  drawn 
as  to  what  I  would  do,  I  may  without  impropriety  speak  out. 
I  say,  then,  I  am  against  its  adoption  in  Illinois,  or  any  place 
where  I  have  a  right  to  oppose  it.  Understanding  the  spirit 
of  our  institutions  to  aim  at  the  elevation  of  men  I  am  opposed 
to  whatever  tends  to  degrade  them.  I  have  some  little  notoriety 
for  commiserating  the  oppressed  condition  of  the  negro;  and  I 
should  be  strangely  inconsistent  if  I  could  favor  any  project 
for  curtailing  the  existing  rights  of  white  men,  even  though 


1 82  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1859 

born  in  different  lands  and  speaking  different  languages  from 
myself.  As  a  matter  of  fusion,  I  am  for  it  if  it  can  be  had  on 
Republican  grounds ;  and  I  am  not  for  it  on  any  other  terms. 

30th.  Purchases  Illinois  Staats  Anzeiger  and  contracts 
with  Theodore  Canisius  to  edit  it  as  a  Republican  organ.  The 
purchase  is  effected  by  a  confidential  arrangement  and  is  not 
made  public. 

He  has  letters  of  consultation  from  national  leaders  attest- 
ing his  growth  in  importance. 

June  20th.  (To  S.  P.  Chase.)  Yours  of  the  13th  instant  is 
received.  You  say  you  would  be  glad  to  have  my  views.  Al- 
though I  think  Congress  has  Constitutional  authority  to  en- 
act a  fugitive  slave  law,  I  have  never  elaborated  an  opinion 
on  the  subject.  My  view  has  been,  ever  is,  simply  this :  The 
U.  S.  Constitution  says  the  fugitive  slave  "shall  be  delivered 
up"  but  it  does  not  expressly  say  who  shall  deliver  him  up. 
Whatever  the  Constitution  says  "shall  be  done"  and  has 
omitted  saying  who  shall  do  it,  the  government  established  by 
that  Constitution,  ex  vi  termini,  is  vested  with  the  power  of 
doing;  and  Congress  is,  by  the  Constitution,  expressly  em- 
powered to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
for  carrying  into  execution  all  powers  vested  by  the  Consti- 
tution in  the  government  of  the  United  States.  This  would 
be  my  view,  on  a  simple  reading  of  the  Constitution;  and  it 
is  greatly  strengthened  by  the  historical  fact  that  the  Consti- 
tution was  adopted,  in  great  part,  in  order  to  get  a  government 
which  could  execute  its  own  behests,  in  contradistinction  to  that 
under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  which  depended  in  many 
respects  upon  the  States  for  its  execution ;  and  the  other  fact 
that  one  of  the  earliest  Congresses  under  the  Constitution,  did 
enact  a  Fugitive  Slave  law. 


age  5o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  183 

But  I  do  not  write  you  on  this  subject,  with  any  view  of 
discussing  the  Constitutional  question.  My  only  object  was 
to  impress  you  with  what  I  believe  is  true,  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  proposition  for  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Law  into  the 
next  Republican  National  convention  will  explode  the  conven- 
tion and  the  party.  Having  turned  your  attention  to  this  point, 
I  wish  to  do  no  more. 

23rd.  From  the  passage  of  the  Nebraska  bill  up  to  date, 
the  Southern  opposition  have  constantly  sought  to  gain  an 
advantage  over  the  rotten  democracy,  by  running  ahead  of 
them  in  the  extreme  opposition  to,  and  vilification  and  mis- 
representation of  black  republicans.  It  will  be  a  good  deal,  if 
we  fail  to  remember  this  in  malice,  (as  I  hope  we  shall  fail  to 
remember  it)  ;  but  it  is  altogether  too  much  to  ask  us  to  stand 
with  them  on  the  platform  which  has  proven  altogether  in- 
sufficient to  sustain  them  alone.  If  the  rotten  democracy  shall 
be  beaten  in  i860,  it  has  to  be  done  by  the  North,  no  human 
invention  can  deprive  them  of  the  South.  I  do  not  deny  that 
there  are  as  good  men  in  the  South  as  the  North ;  and  I  guess 
we  will  elect  one  of  them  if  he  will  allow  us  to  do  so  on  Re- 
publican ground.  I  think  there  can  be  no  other  ground  of 
union.  For  my  single  self  I  would  be  willing  to  risk  some 
Southern  man  without  a  platform ;  but  I  am  satisfied  that  is 
not  the  case  with  the  Republican  party  generally. 

His  political  insight  perceives  the  internal  dangers  of  his 
party. 

Jidy  6th.  (To  Schuyler  Colfax.)  Besides  a  strong  de- 
sire to  make  your  personal  acquaintance,  I  was  anxious  to 
speak  with  you  on  politics  a  little  more  fully  than  I  can  well  do 
in  a  letter. 

My  main  object  in  such  conversation  would  be  to  hedge 
against  divisions  in  the  Republican  ranks  generally,  and  par- 


184  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1859 

ticularly  for  the  contest  of  i860.  The  point  of  danger  is  the 
temptation  in  different  localities  to  "platform"  for  some- 
thing which  will  be  popular  there,  but  which,  nevertheless,  will 
be  a  brand  elsewhere,  and  especially  in  a  national  convention. 
As  instances,  the  movement  against  foreigners  in  Massachu- 
setts; in  New  Hampshire,  to  make  obedience  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  law  punishable  as  a  crime ;  in  Ohio,  to  repeal  the  Fugitive 
Slave  law ;  and  squatter  sovereignty  in  Kansas.  In  these  things 
there  is  explosive  enough  to  blow  up  half  a  dozen  national 
conventions,  if  it  gets  into  them;  and  what  gets  very  rife  out- 
side of  conventions  is  very  likely  to  find  its  way  into  them. 
What  is  desirable,  if  possible,  is  that  in  every  local  convocation 
of  Republicans  a  point  should  be  made  to  avoid  everything 
which  will  disturb  Republicans  elsewhere.  Massachusetts  Re- 
publicans should  have  looked  beyond  their  noses,  and  then  they 
could  not  have  failed  to  see  that  tilting  against  foreigners 
would  ruin  us  in  the  whole  Northwest.  New  Hampshire  and 
Ohio  should  forbear  tilting  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  in 
such  a  way  as  to  utterly  overwhelm  us  in  Illinois  with  the 
charges  of  enmity  to  the  Constitution  itself.  Kansas,  in  her 
confidence  that  she  can  be  saved  to  freedom  on  "Squatter 
sovereignty,"  ought  not  to  forget  that  to  prevent  the  spread  and 
nationalization  of  slavery  is  a  national  concern,  and  must  be 
attended  to  by  the  nation. 

Still  the  subterranean  movement  to  nominate  him  for  the 
presidency  goes  on. 

28th,  (To  Samuel  Galloway.)  Two  things  done  by  the 
Ohio  Republican  convention — the  repudiation  of  Judge  Swan, 
and  the  "plank"  for  a  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law — I  very 
much  regretted.  These  two  things  are  of  a  piece;  and  they 
are  viewed  by  many  good  men,  sincerely  opposed  to  slavery,  as 
a  struggle  against,  and  in  disregard  of,  the  Constitution  itself. 


age  50]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  185 

And  it  is  the  very  thing  which  will  greatly  endanger  our  cause, 
if  it  is  not  kept  out  of  our  national  convention. 

I  must  say  that  I  do  not  think  myself  fit  for  the  presidency. 

His  form  of  politics  does  not  pay  and  his  range  of  political 
activity  is  limited  by  his  poverty. 

August  6th.  It  is  bad  to  be  poor.  I  shall  go  to  the  wall  for 
bread  and  meat,  if  I  neglect  my  business  this  year  as  well  as 
last.  It  would  please  me  much  to  see  the  City  and  good  people 
of  Keokuk,  but  for  this  year  it  is  little  less  than  an  impossi- 
bility. I  am  constantly  receiving  invitations  which  I  am  com- 
pelled to  decline.  I  was  pressingly  urged  to  go  to  Minnesota ; 
and  I  now  have  two  invitations  to  go  to  Ohio.  These  last  are 
prompted  by  Douglas  going  there ;  and  I  am  really  tempted  to 
make  a  flying  trip  to  Columbus  and  Cincinnati. 

September  6th.  (To  Peter  Zinn.)  Yours  of  the  2nd  in 
relation  to  my  appearing  at  Cincinnati  in  behalf  of  the  Oppo- 
sition is  received.  I  already  had  a  similar  letter  from  Mr. 
W.  J.  Bascom,  Secretary  of  the  Republican  State  Central  Com- 
mittee at  Columbus,  which  I  answer  to-day.  You  are  in  cro- 
respondence  with  him,  and  will  learn  all  from  him.  I  shall 
try  to  speak  at  Columbus  and  Cincinnati,  but  can  not  do  more. 

He  makes  the  promised  journey  to  Ohio. 

lyth.     At  Cincinnati. 

This  is  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  appeared 
before  an  audience  in  so  great  a  city  as  this.  I  therefore — 
though  I  am  no  longer  a  young  man — make  this  appearance 
under  some  degree  of  embarrassment.  But  I  have  found  that 
when  one  is  embarrassed,  usually  the  shortest  way  to  get 
through  with  it  is  to  quit  talking  or  thinking  about  it,  and  go 
at  something  else. 


1 86  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1859 

Labor  is  the  great  source  from  which  nearly  all,  if  not  all, 
human  comforts  and  necessities  are  drawn.  There  is  a  differ- 
ence in  opinion  about  the  elements  of  labor  in  society.  Some 
men  assume  that  there  is  a  necessary  connection  between  cap- 
ital and  labor,  and  that  connection  draws  within  it  the  whole 
of  the  labor  of  the  community. 

They  assume  that  nobody  works  unless  capital  excites  them 
to  work.  They  begin  next  to  consider  what  is  the  best  way. 
They  say  there  are  but  two  ways;  one  is  to  hire  men  and  to 
allure  them  to  labor  by  their  consent;  the  other  is  to  buy  the 
men  and  to  drive  them  to  it;  and  that  is  slavery.  Having 
assumed  that,  they  proceed  to  discuss  the  question  of  whether 
the  laborers  themselves  are  better  off  in  the  condition  of  slaves 
or  of  hired  laborers,  and  they  usually  decide  that  they  are  bet- 
ter off  in  the  condition  of  slaves. 

In  the  first  place,  I  say  that  the  whole  thing  is  a  mistake. 
That  there  is  a  certain  relation  between  capital  and  labor,  I 
admit.  That  it  does  exist,  and  rightfully  exists,  I  think  is  true. 
That  men  who  are  industrious  and  sober  and  honest  in  the  pur- 
suit of  their  own  interests  should  after  a  while  accumulate  cap- 
ital, and  after  that  should  be  allowed  to  enjoy  it  in  peace,  and 
also  if  they  choose,  when  they  have  accumulated  it,  to  use  it  to 
save  themselves  from  actual  labor  and  hire  other  people  to 
labor  for  them,  is  right.  In  doing  so,  they  do  not  wrong  the 
man  they  employ,  for  they  find  men  who  have  not  their  own 
land  to  work  upon,  or  shops  to  work  in,  and  who  are  benefited 
by  working  for  others — hired  laborers,  receiving  their  capital 
for  it.  Thus  a  few  men  that  own  capital  hire  others,  and  these 
establish  the  relation  of  capital  and  labor  rightfully — a  relation 
of  which  I  make  no  complaint. 

30th.  Delivers  the  Annual  Address  before  the  Wisconsin 
State  Agricultural  Society  at  Milwaukee. 


acs  so]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  187 

October  nth.  I  was  an  old  Henry  Clay-Tariff  Whig.  In 
old  days  I  made  more  speeches  on  that  subject  than  any  other. 

I  have  not  since  changed  my  views.  I  believe  yet,  if  we 
could  have  a  moderate,  carefully  adjusted,  protective  tariff,  so 
far  acquiesced  in  as  not  to  be  a  perpetual  subject  of  political 
strife,  squabbles,  changes,  and  uncertainties,  it  would  be  better 
for  us.  Still  it  is  my  opinion  that  just  now  the  revival  of  that 
question  will  not  advance  the  cause  itself,  or  the  man  who  re- 
vives it. 

I  have  not  thought  much  on  the  subject  recently,  but  my 
general  impression  is  that  the  necessity  for  a  protective  tariff 
will  ere  long  force  its  old  opponents  to  take  it  up ;  and  then  its 
old  friends  can  join  in  and  establish  it  on  a  more  firm  and 
durable  basis. 

17th.  (To  Mark  W.  Delahay.)  As  to  the  pecuniary  mat- 
ter, about  which  you  formerly  wrote  me,  I  again  appealed  to 
our  friend  Turner  by  letter,  but  he  never  answered.  I  can  but 
repeat  to  you  that  I  am  so  pressed  myself,  as  to  be  unable  to 
assist  you,  unless  I  could  get  it  from  him. 

Though  his  silent  friends  are  Still  hoping  to  bring  about  his 
nomination,  he  still  refrains  from  committing  himself. 

November  1st.  For  my  single  self,  I  have  enlisted  for  the 
permanent  success  of  the  Republican  cause;  and  for  this  ob- 
ject I  shall  labor  faithfully  in  the  ranks,  unless,  as  I  think  not 
probable,  the  judgment  of  the  party  shall  assign  me  a  different 
position. 

December.  A  speech-making  trip  in  Kansas  is  a  great  pop- 
ular success.  Arguments  of  the  Douglas  debates  are  effec- 
tually used  again. 

pth.  (To  N.  B.  Judd.)  I  do  not  understand  Trumbull 
and  myself  to  be  rivals.    I  am  pledged  to  not  enter  a  struggle 


1 88  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1859 

with  him  for  the  seat  of  the  Senate  now  occupied  by  him; 
and  yet  I  would  rather  have  a  full  term  in  the  Senate  than  in 
the  Presidency. 

ipth.  (To  G.  M.  Parsons  and  Others.)  Your  letter  of  the 
7th  instant,  accompanied  by  a  similar  one  from  the  governor- 
elect,  the  Republican  State  officers,  and  the  Republican  mem- 
bers of  the  State  Board  of  Equalization  of  Ohio,  both  re- 
questing of  me,  for  publication  in  permanent  form,  copies  of 
the  political  debates  between  Senator  Douglas  and  myself  last 
year,  has  been  received.  With  my  grateful  acknowledgments 
to  both  you  and  them  for  the  very  flattering  terms  in  which 
the  request  is  communicated,  I  transmit  you  the  copies. 

As  evidence  of  the  growth  of  his  silent  "boom"  his  friends 
obtain  from  him  the  earliest  sketch  of  his  life. 

20th.  (To  J.  W.  Fell.)  Herewith  is  a  little  sketch,  as  you 
requested.  There  is  not  much  of  it,  for  the  reason,  I  suppose, 
that  there  is  not  much  of  me.  If  anything  be  made  out  of  it, 
I  wish  it  to  be  modest,  and  not  to  go  beyond  the  material.  If  it 
were  thought  necessary  to  incorporate  anything  from  any  of 
my  speeches,  I  suppose  there  would  be  no  objection.  Of  course 
it  must  not  appear  to  have  been  written  by  myself. 

If  any  personal  description  of  me  is  thought  desirable,  it 
may  be  said  that  I  am,  in  height,  six  feet  four  inches,  nearly; 
lean  in  flesh,  weighing  on  an  average  one  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds ;  dark  complexion,  with  coarse  black  hair  and  grey  eyes, 
no  other  marks  or  brands  recollected.* 

22nd.  The  Union  we  intend  to  keep,  and  loyal  states  will 
not  let  disloyal  ones  break  it.  Its  constitution  and  laws  made 
in  pursuance  thereof  must  and  shall  remain,  "the  supreme  law 


*The  entries  in  this  record  which  cover  his  early  years  are  drawn  in 
part  from  the  sketch  of  himself  prepared  for  Fell.  Others  are  from  a  fullei; 
sketch  prepared  in  i860. 


age  so]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  189 

of  the  land."  The  enforcement  of  what  laws?  If  they  are 
those  which  give  the  use  of  jails  and  domestic  police  for  mas- 
ters seeking  "fugitives  from  labor"  that  means  war  in  the 
North.  No  law  is  stronger  than  is  the  public  sentiment  where 
it  is  to  be  enforced.  Free  speech  and  immunity  from  the  whip 
and  tar  and  feathers,  seem  implied  by  the  guarantee  of  each 
state  of  "a  republican  form  of  government."  Try  Henry  Clay's 
"gradual  emancipation"  scheme  now  in  Kentucky,  or  to  cir- 
culate W.  L.  Garrison's  Liberator  where  most  men  are  sali- 
vated by  the  excessive  use  of  the  Charleston  Mercury.  Father 
told  a  story  of  a  man  in  your  parts  required  to  give  a  warran- 
tee bill  of  sale  with  a  horse.  He  wrote,  "I  warrant  him  sound 
in  skin  and  skeleton  and  without  faults  or  faculties."  That  is 
more  than  I  can  say  of  an  unmeaning  platform.  Compromises 
of  principles  break  of  their  own  weight. 

Old  John  Brown  has  been  executed  for  treason  against  a 
State.* 

We  Republicans  can  not  object,  even  though  he  agreed  with 
us  in  thinking  slavery  wrong.  That  can  not  excuse  violence, 
bloodshed  and  treason.  It  could  avail  him  nothing  that  he 
might  think  himself  right.  So,  if  we  constitutionally  elect  a 
President,  and  therefore  you,  Democrats,  undertake  to  destroy 
the  Union,  it  will  be  our  duty  to  deal  with  you  as  old  John 
Brown  has  been  dealt  with.  We  shall  try  to  do  our  duty.  We 
hope  and  believe  that  in  no  section  will  a  majority  so  act  as  to 
render  such  extreme  measures  necessary. 


♦December  2nd,  1859. 


1860 

January  ipth.  (To  Alexander  H.  Stephens.)  Your  letter 
and  one  from  Honorable  J.  J.  Crittenden,  reached  me  at  the 
same  time.  He  wants  a  new  party  on  the  platform  of  "The 
Union,  the  Constitution  and  the  Enforcement  of  Laws," — not 
construed.  You  from  your  retirement  at  Liberty  Hall  com- 
plain of  the  bad  faith  of  many  in  the  Free  States  who  refuse  to 
return  fugitives  from  labor,  as  agreed  in  the  compromise  of 
1850,  1854;  but  I  infer  that  you  agree  with  Judge  Douglas  that 
the  territories  are  to  be  left  to  "form  and  regulate  their  own 
domestic  institutions  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States." 

When  we  were  both  members  of  the  Young-Indian  Club  in 
Washington,*  you  then  argued  for  paramount  state  Sov- 
ereignty going  very  nearly  to  the  extreme  of  state  nullification 
of  Federal  laws  with  John  C.  Calhoun;  and  of  secession  at 
will  with  Robert  Toombs.  The  Colonies  were  subject  up  to 
July  4,  1776,  and  had  no  recognized  independence  until  they 
won  it  in  1783;  but  the  only  time  they  ever  had  the  shadows 
of  separate  sovereignty  was  in  the  two  years  before  they  were 
compelled  to  the  articles  of  Confederation  July  9,  1778.  They 
fought  England  for  seven  years  for  the  right  to  club  together 
but  when  were  they  independent  of  each  other?  Let  me  say 
right  here  that  only  unanimous  consent  of  all  the  States  can 
dissolve  this  Union.  We  shall  not  secede  and  you  shall  not. 
Let  me  show  you  what  I  think  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the 
states  as  declared  in  the  articles  of  Confederation  and  in  the 


*When  Lincoln  was  a  member  of  Congress. 

190 


age  5o]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  191 

Constitution  and  so-called  Jeffersonian  amendments;  suppose 
that  I  sold  a  farm  here  in  Illinois  with  all  and  singular  the 
rights,  members  and  appurtenances  to  the  same  in  any  wise 
belonging  or  appertaining,  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered :  I 
have  now  sold  my  land.  Will  it  at  all  change  the  contract  if 
I  go  to  the  clerk's  office  and  add  a  post  script  to  the  record; 
that  all  rights  not  therein  conveyed  I  reserve  to  myself  and  my 
children?  The  colonies,  by  the  Declaration  of  July  4,  1776, 
did  not  get  nationality,  for  they  were  leagued  to  fight  for  it. 
By  the  articles  of  Confederation  of  July  9,  1778,  under  stress 
and  peril  of  failure  without  union,  a  government  was  created 
to  which  the  states  ceded  certain  powers  of  nationality,  espe- 
cially in  the  command  of  the  army  and  navy,  as  yet  supported 
by  the  states. 

Three  years  later  Virginia  led  the  states  in  urging  con- 
cessions of  power,  and  then  by  twelve  states — Rhode  Island 
objecting — was  framed  our  original  Constitution  of  1787, 
fully  three  and  a  half  years  after  the  peace  that  sealed  our 
United  National  Independence.  No  loop  hole  left  for  nulli- 
fication, and  none  for  secession — because  the  right  of  peaceable 
assembly  and  of  petition  and  by  the  Article  Fifth  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  right  of  amendment  is  the  Constitutional  substi- 
tute for  revolution.  Here  is  our  Magna  Charta  not  wrested  by 
Barons  from  King  John,  but  the  free  gift  of  the  states  to  the 
nation  they  create  and  in  the  very  amendments  harped  upon  by 
states  rights  men  are  proposed  by  Federal  congress  and  ap- 
proved by  Presidents,  to  make  the  liberties  of  the  Republic  of 
the  West  forever  sure.  All  of  the  States'  Rights  which  they 
wished  to  retain  are  now  and  forever  retained  in  the  Union, 
including  slavery,  and  so  I  have  sworn  loyalty  to  this  constitu- 
tional Union,  and  for  it  let  me  live  or  let  me  die. 

I  am  not  in  favor  of  a  party  of  Union,  Constitution  and 
Law  to  suit  Mr.  Bell  or  Mr.  Everett  and  be  construed  variously 
in  as  many  sections  as  there  are  states, 


192  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [i860 

February.  Requested  by  letter  to  speak  in  Mr.  Beecher's 
church  in  Brooklyn.     He  accepts  the  invitation. 

By  this  time  his  friends  have  gone  so  far  in  working  up  the 
confidential  movement  for  his  nomination  that  he  decides  to 
let  their  course  determine  his  own. 

pth.  (To  N.  B.  Judcl.)  I  am  not  in  a  position  where  it 
would  mean  much  for  me  not  to  be  nominated  on  the  national 
ticket;  but  I  am  where  it  would  hurt  some  for  me  to  not  get 
the  Illinois  delegates.  What  I  expected  when  I  wrote  the  letter 
to  Messrs.  Dole  and  others  is  now  happening.  Your  discom- 
fited assailants  are  most  bitter  against  me;  and  they  will,  for 
revenge  upon  me,  lay  to  the  Bates  egg  in  the  South,  and  to  the 
Seward  egg  in  the  North,  and  go  far  toward  squeezing  me  out 
in  the  middle  with  nothing.  Can  you  not  help  me  a  little  in 
this  matter  in  your  end  of  the  vineyard?  I  mean  this  to  be 
private. 

13th.  I  am  engaged  to  be  in  Brooklyn  the  evening  of  the 
29th. 

Plan  for  an  address  at  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 
changed;  address  to  be  given  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Central  Republican 
Union. 

25th.     New  York. 

(On  arrival  at  the  offices  of  the  Editor  of  the  Independent, 
who  had  promoted  the  Cooper  Institute  meeting.) 

Is  this  Mr.  Henry  C.  Bowen?  (Mr.  Bowen,  rather 
curtly, — Yes.)  I  am  Abraham  Lincoln.  Mr.  Bowen,  I  am  just 
in  from  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  I  am  very  tired.  If  you 
have  no  objection  I  will  lie  down  on  your  lounge  here  and  you 
can  tell  me  about  the  arrangements  for  Monday  night. 

26th.     (After  hearing  Beecher  preach.)     Mr.  Bowen,  you 


age  si]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  193 

will  have  to  excuse  me  from  dining  with  you.  I  would  very 
much  enjoy  meeting  you  and  your  friends  at  dinner,  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  have  not  fully  prepared  the  speech  that  I  am 
to  deliver  Monday  night.  I  must  go  over  to  the  Astor  House 
and  work  on  it. 

2jt'h.  At  Cooper  Union  he  is  escorted  to  the  platform  by 
Horace  Greeley  and  David  Dudley  Field.  William  Cidlen  Bry- 
ant introduces  him.  He  makes  a  deep  impression  on  a  very 
influential  audience.  Besides  skilfully  formulating  the  general 
Republican  position,  he  boldly  passes  judgment  on  the  recent 
episode  of  John  Brown  with  which  at  the  moment  the  whole 
country  is  ringing. 

(At  Cooper  Institute.)  Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard 
a  little  against  being  misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  we  are  bound  to  follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers 
did.  To  do  so  would  be  to  distract  all  the  lights  of  current 
experience — to  reject  all  progress — all  improvement.  What  I 
do  say  is,  that,  if  we  should  supplant  the  opinions  and  policy 
of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should  do  so  on  evidence  so 
conclusive,  and  argument  so  clear,  that  even  their  great  author- 
ity, fairly  considered  and  weighed,  can  not  stand ;  and  most 
surely  not  in  a  case  whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  under- 
stood the  question  better  than  we. 

And  now,  if  they  would  listen — as  I  suppose  they  will  not — 
I  would  address  a  few  words  to  the  Southern  people. 

You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among  your 
slaves.  We  deny  it.  And  what  is  your  proof?  Harper's 
Ferry?  John  Brown?  John  Brown  was  no  Republican;  and 
you  have  failed  to  implicate  a  single  Republican  in  his  Harper's 
Ferry  enterprise.  If  any  member  of  our  party  is  guilty  in  that 
matter,  you  know  it,  or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know 
it,  you  are  inexcusable  for  not  designating  the  man  and  proving 


194  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

the  fact.  If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are  inexcusable  for  as- 
serting it,  and  especially  for  persisting  in  the  assertion  after  you 
have  tried  and  failed  to  make  the  proof. 

John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a  slave  insur- 
rection. It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to  get  up  a  revolt 
among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves  refused  to  participate.  In 
fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that  the  slaves,  with  all  their  ignorance, 
saw  plainly  enough  it  could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its 
philosophy,  corresponds  with  the  many  attempts,  related  in 
history,  at  the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An  en- 
thusiast broods  over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he  fancies 
himself  commissioned  by  Heaven  to  liberate  them.  He  ven- 
tures the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little  less  than  his  own  execu- 
tion. Orsini's  attempt  on  Louis  Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's 
attempt  at  Harper's  Ferry,  were,  in  their  philosophy,  precisely 
the  same.  The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  England  in  the 
one  case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other,  does  not  disprove 
the  sameness  of  the  two  things. 

March.  Left  for  New  Hampshire  where  I  have  a  son  in 
school. 

6th.     At  New  Haven,  Connecticut. 

Whenever  this  question  shall  be  settled,  it  must  be  settled 
on  some  philosophical  basis.  No  policy  that  does  not  rest  on 
philosophical  public  opinion  can  be  permanently  maintained. 
And  hence  there  are  but  two  policies  in  regard  to  slavery  that 
can  be  at  all  maintained.  The  first,  based  on  the  property  view 
that  slavery  is  right,  conforms  to  that  idea  throughout,  and 
demands  that  we  shall  do  everything  for  it  that  we  ought  to  do 
if  it  were  right.  We  must  sweep  away  all  opposition,  for 
opposition  to  the  right  is  wrong ;  we  must  agree  that  slavery  is 
right,  and  we  must  adopt  the  idea  that  property  has  persuaded 
the  owner  to  believe  that  slavery  is  morally  right  and  socially 
elevating.  This  gives  a  philosophical  basis  for  a  permanent 
policy  of  encouragement, 


age  5i]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  195 

The  other  policy  is  one  that  squares  with  the  idea  that 
slavery  is  wrong,  and  it  consists  in  doing  everything  that  we 
ought  to  do  if  it  is  wrong.  Now  I  don't  wish  to  be  misunder- 
stood, nor  to  leave  a  gap  down  to  be  misrepresented,  even.  I 
don't  mean  that  we  ought  to  attack  it  where  it  exists.  To  me 
it  seems  that  if  we  were  to  form  a  government  anew,  in  view  of 
the  actual  presence  of  slavery  we  should  find  it  necessary  to 
frame  just  such  a  government  as  our  fathers  did — giving  to 
the  slave-holder  the  entire  control  where  the  system  was  estab- 
lished, while  we  possess  the  power  to  restrain  it  from  going 
outside  those  limits.  From  the  necessities  of  the  case  we 
should  be  compelled  to  form  just  such  a  government  as  our 
blessed  fathers  gave  us;  and  surely  if  they  have  so  made  it, 
that  adds  another  reason  why  we  should  let  slavery  alone 
where  it  exists. 

Returns  home  through  New  York  from  New  England. 

1 6th.  (To  Mark  W.  Delahay.)  As  to  your  kind  wishes 
for  myself,  allow  me  to  say  I  can  not  enter  the  ring  on  the 
money  basis — first,  because  in  the  main  it  is  wrong,  and  sec- 
ondly, I  have  not  and  can  not  get  the  money.  I  say,  in  the 
main,  the  use  of  money  is  wrong;  but  for  certain  objects  in  a 
political  contest,  the  use  of  some  is  both  right  and  indispen- 
sable. With  me,  as  with  yourself,  the  long  struggle  has  been 
one  of  pecuniary  loss. 

I  now  distinctly  say  this:  if  you  shall  be  appointed  a  dele- 
gate to  Chicago,  I  will  furnish  one  hundred  dollars  to  bear  the 
expenses  of  the  trip. 

(To  Lyman  Trumbull.)  Our  friend  Delahay  wants  to  be 
one  oi  the  Senators  from  Kansas.  Certainly  it  is  not  for  out- 
siders to  obtrude  their  interference.  Delahay  has  suffered  a 
great  deal  in  our  cause,  and  been  very  faithful  to  it,  as  I  under- 
stand.   He  writes  me  that  some  of  the  members  of  the  Kansas 


196  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

Legislature  have  written  you  in  a  way  that  your  simple  answer 
might  help  him.  I  wish  you  would  consider  whether  you  can 
not  assist  him  that  far,  without  impropriety.  I  know  it  is  a 
delicate  matter  and  I  do  not  wish  to  press  you  beyond  your 
own  judgment. 

24th.     Chicago. 

(To  Samuel  Galloway.)  I  am  here  attending  a  trial 
in  court.  Before  leaving  home  I  received  your  kind  letter  of 
the  15th.  Of  course  I  am  gratified  to  know  that  I  have  friends 
in  Ohio  who  are  disposed  to  give  me  the  highest  evidence  of 
their  friendship  and  confidence.  Mr.  Parrot,  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, had  written  me  to  the  same  effect.  If  I  have  any  chance, 
it  consists  mainly  in  the  fact  that  the  whole  opposition  would 
vote  for  me,  if  nominated.  (I  don't  mean  to  include  the  pro- 
slavery  opposition  of  the  South,  of  course).  My  name  is  new 
in  the  field,  and  I  suppose  I  am  not  the  first  choice  of  a  very 
great  many.  Our  policy,  then,  is  to  give  no  offense  to  others — 
leave  them  in  a  mood  to  come  to  us  if  they  shall  be  compelled  to 
give  up  their  first  love.  This,  too,  is  dealing  justly  with  all, 
and  leaving  us  in  a  mood  to  support  heartily  whoever  shall  be 
nominated.  I  believe  that  I  have  once  before  told  you  that  I 
wish  especially  to  do  no  ungenerous  thing  toward  Governor 
Chase,  because  he  gave  us  his  sympathy  in  1858  when  scarcely 
any  other  distinguished  man  did.  Whatever  you  may  do  for 
me,  consistently  with  these  suggestions,  will  be  appreciated  and 
gratefully  remembered. 

With  the  great  event  of  his  life  impending  he  keeps  pa- 
tiently at  his  professional  duties. 

26th.     Chicago. 

(To  Ward  H.  Lamon.)  Yours  about  notions  to  quash  the 
indictment  was  received  yesterday.  I  think  I  had  no  authority 
but  the  statute  when  I  wrote  the  indictment — in  fact  I  remem- 
ber but  a  little  about  it.     I  think  yet  there  is  no  necessity  for 


age  51]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  197 

setting  out  the  letter  in  haec  verba.  Our  statute  as  I  think 
releases  the  high  degree  of  technical  certainty  formerly  re- 
quired. 

I  am  so  busy  with  our  cause  on  trial  here  that  I  can  not 
examine  authorities  here  as  fully  as  you  can  there.  If  after  all 
the  indictment  shall  be  quashed  it  will  prove  that  my  forte  is 
as  a  statesman  rather  than  a  prosecutor. 

April  6th.     Springfield. 

(To  R.  M.  Corwine.)  Reaching  home  after  an  absence  of 
more  than  two  weeks,  I  found  your  letter  of  the  24th  of  March. 
Remembering  that  when  a  not  very  great  man  begins  to  be 
mentioned  for  a  very  great  position,  his  head  is  very  likely  to 
be  a  little  turned,  I  conclude  I  am  not  the  fittest  person  to 
answer  the  questions  you  ask.  Making  due  allowance  for  this, 
I  think  Mr.  Seward  is  the  very  best  candidate  we  could  have 
for  the  North  of  Illinois,  and  the  very  worst  for  the  South  of 
it.  The  estimate  of  Governor  Chase  here  is  neither  better  nor 
worse  than  that  of  Seward,  except  that  he  is  a  newer  man. 
They  are  regarded  as  being  almost  the  same,  seniority  gives 
Seward  the  inside  track.  Mr.  Bates,  I  think,  would  be  the 
best  man  for  the  South  of  our  State,  and  the  worst  for  the 
North  of  it.  If  Judge  McLean  was  fifteen  or  even  ten  years 
younger,  I  think  he  would  be  stronger  than  either,  in  our  State, 
taken  as  a  whole;  but  his  great  age,  and  the  recollections  of 
the  deaths  of  Harrison  and  Taylor  have,  so  far,  prevented  his 
being  much  spoken  of. 

I  really  believe  we  can  carry  the  State  for  either  of  them, 
or  for  any  one  who  may  be  nominated ;  but  doubtless  it  would 
be  easier  to  do  it  with  some  than  with  others. 

I  feel  myself  disqualified  to  speak  of  myself  in  this  mat- 
ter. I  feel  this  letter  will  be  of  little  value  to  you;  but  I  can 
make  it  no  better,  under  the  circumstances.  Let  it  be  strictly 
confidential,  not  that  there  is  any  thing  really  objectionable 
in  it,  but  because  it  might  be  misconstrued. 

(To  C.  F.  McNeil.)     Reaching  home  yesterday,  I  found 


198  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

yours  of  the  23rd  March,  inclosing  a  slip  from  the  Middleport 
Press.  It  is  not  true  that  I  ever  charged  anything  for  a  politi- 
cal speech  in  my  life;  but  this  much  is  true.  Last  October  I 
was  requested  by  letter  to  deliver  some  sort  of  speech  in  Mr. 
Beecher's  church,  in  Brooklyn,  $200  being  offered  in  the  first 
letter.  I  wrote  that  I  could  do  it  in  February,  provided  they 
would  take  a  political  speech  if  I  could  find  time  to  get  up  no 
other.  They  agreed;  and  subsequently  I  informed  them  the 
speech  would  have  to  be  a  political  one.  When  I  reached  New 
York,  I,  for  the  first  time  learned  that  the  place  was  changed 
to  "Cooper's  Institute.',  I  made  the  speech,  and  left  for  New 
Hampshire,  where  I  had  a  son  in  school,  neither  asking  for 
pay,  nor  having  any  offered  me.  Three  days  after,  a  check 
for  $200  was  sent  to  me  at  N.  H. ;  and  I  took  it,  and  did  not 
know  it  was  wrong.  My  understanding  now  is — though  I 
knew  nothing  of  it  at  the  time, — that  they  did  charge  for  ad- 
mittance to  the  Cooper  Institute,  and  they  took  in  more  than 
twice  $200. 

I  have  made  this  explanation  to  you  as  a  friend ;  but  I  wish 
no  explanation  made  to  our  enemies.  What  they  want  is  a 
squabble  and  a  fuss;  and  that  they  can  have  if  we  explain;  and 
they  can  not  have  it  if  we  don't. 

When  I  returned  through  New  York  from  New  England, 
I  was  told  by  the  gentleman  who  sent  me  the  check  that  a 
drunken  vagabond  in  the  club,  having  learned  something  about 
the  $200,  made  the  exhibition  out  of  which  The  Herald  manu- 
factured the  article  quoted  by  the  Press  of  your  town. 

My  judgment  is,  and  therefore  my  request  is,  that  you  give 
no  denial,  and  no  explanations. 

14th.  (To  Delahay.)  You  know  I  was  in  New  England. 
Some  of  the  acquaintances  I  made  while  there  write  to  me 
since  the  election  that  the  close  vote  in  Connecticut  and  the 
quasi  defeat  in  R.  I.  are  a  drawback  upon  the  prospects  of  Gov- 
ernor Seward;  and  Trumbull  writes  Dubois  to  the  same  effect. 


age  5i]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  199 

Do  not  mention  this  as  coming  from  me.  Both  those  States  are 
safe  enough  for  us  in  the  fall.  I  see  by  the  despatches  that 
since  you  wrote  Kansas  has  appointed  delegates  and  instructed 
them  for  Seward.  Do  not  stir  them  up  to  anger,  but  come 
along  to  the  convention,  and  I  will  do  as  I  said  about  the 
expenses. 

29th.  (To  Lyman  Trumbull.)  As  you  requested,  I  will 
be  entirely  frank.  The  taste  is  in  my  mouth  a  little ;  and  this, 
no  doubt,  disqualifies  me,  to  some  extent,  to  form  correct 
opinions.  You  may  confidently  rely,  however,  that  by  no 
advice  or  consent  of  mine,  shall  my  pretensions  be  pressed,  to 
the  point  of  endangering  our  common  cause. 

A  word  now  for  your  own  special  benefit.  You  better 
write  no  letters  which  can  possibly  be  distorted  into  opposition, 
or  quasi  opposition  to  me.  There  are  men  on  the  constant 
watch  for  such  things  out  of  which  to  prejudice  my  peculiar 
friends  against  you. 

While  I  have  no  more  suspicion  of  you  than  of  my  best 
friend  living,  I  am  kept  in  a  constant  struggle  against  sugges- 
tions of  this  sort.  I  have  hesitated  some  to  write  this  para- 
graph, lest  you  should  suspect  I  do  it  for  my  own  benefit,  and 
not  for  yours;  but  on  reflection  I  conclude  you  will  not  suspect 
me. 

Let  no  eye  but  your  own  see  this — not  that  there  is  anything 
wrong,  or  even  ungenerous,  in  it ;  but  it  would  be  misconstrued. 

May  2nd.  (To  James  Grant  Wilson.)  I  am  greatly 
obliged  for  the  volume  of  your  friend  Fitz  Green  Halleck's 
poems.  Many  a  month  has  passed  since  I  have  met  with  any- 
thing more  admirable  than  his  lines  on  Burns.  With  Alnwick 
Castle,  Marco  Bozzaris,  and  Red  Jacket,  I  am  also  much 
pleased. 

It  is  wonderful  that  you  should  have  seen  and  known  a 
sister  of  Robert  Burns.  You  must  tell  me  something  about 
her  when  we  meet  again. 


200  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

(To  R.  M.  Corwine.)  I  think  the  Illinois  delegation  will 
be  unanimous  for  me  at  the  start;  but  may  be  restrained  by 
their  colleagues.  It  is  represented  to  me  by  men  who  ought  to 
know,  that  the  whole  of  Indiana  might  not  be  difficult  to  get. 
You  know  how  it  is  in  Ohio.  I  am  certainly  not  the  first 
choice  there ;  and  yet  I  have  not  heard  that  any  one  makes  any 
positive  objection  to  me.  It  is  just  so  everywhere  as  far  as  I 
can  perceive.  Everywhere,  except  here  in  Illinois  and  possibly 
in  Indiana,  one  or  another  is  preferred  to  me,  but  there  is  no 
positive  objection. 

Attends  the  Republican  State  Convention  which  endorses 
him  as  the  Illinois  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  His  friends 
exhibit  fence  rails  which  are  said  to  have  been  made  by  hint 
long  before  when  a  farm  laborer,  a  ctrail  splitter/' 

gth.  (To  the  Republican  Convention.)  Gentlemen,  I  sup- 
pose you  want  to  know  something  about  those  things  [pointing 
to  old  John  and  the  rails].  Well,  the  truth  is,  John  Hanks  and 
I  did  make  rails  in  the  Sangamon  Bottom.  I  don't  know 
whether  we  made  those  rails  or  not;  the  fact  is,  I  don't  think 
they  are  a  credit  to  the  makers  [laughing  as  he  spoke].  But  I 
do  know  this :  I  made  rails  then,  and  I  think  I  could  make  bet- 
ter ones  than  these  now. 

1 8th.  Nominated  for  President  by  the  Republican  Conven- 
tion at  Chicago  on  the  third  ballot  through  a  combination  of 
several  minor  groups  against  a  major  group  that  supported 
Seward. 

(After  receiving  news  of  the  first  ballot  in  the  conven- 
tion.) The  despatches  seem  to  be  coming  to  the  Journal  office, 
by  arrangement,  I  presume;  we  had  better  go  over  there.  (On 
receiving  the  telegram  announcing  his  nomination.)     I  felt 


age  5i]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


20I 


sure  this  would  come  when  I  saw  the  second  ballot.  ( In  reply 
to  the  immediate  suggestion  that  a  life  of  him  should  be  writ- 
ten.) My  friend,  I  do  not  see  much  in  my  life  yet  to  write 
about.  (As  he  makes  his  way  through  a  crowd  of  congratula- 
tory friends.)  There  is  a  lady  over  yonder  on  Eighth  Street 
who  is  deeply  interested  in  this  news ;  I  will  carry  it  to  her. 

2 1 st,  (Reply  to  the  Committee  sent  by  the  Chicago  Con- 
vention to  inform  him  of  his  nomination  for  President.) 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee:  I  tender  to 
you,  and  through  you  to  the  Republican  National  Convention, 
and  all  the  people  represented  in  it,  my  profoundest  thanks  for 
the  high  honor  done  me,  which  you  now  formally  announce. 
Deeply  and  even  painfully  sensible  of  the  great  responsibility 
which  is  inseparable  from  this  high  honor — a  responsibility 
which  I  could  almost  wish  had  fallen  upon  some  one  of  the  far 
more  eminent  men  and  experienced  statesmen  whose  distin- 
guished names  were  before  the  Convention — I  shall,  by  your 
leave,  consider  more  fully  the  resolutions  of  the  Convention, 
denominated  the  platform,  and,  without  any  unnecessary  and 
unreasonable  delay,  respond  to  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  writing, 
not  doubting  that  the  platform  will  be  found  satisfactory,  and 
the  nomination  gratefully  accepted.  And  now  I  will  no  longer 
defer  the  pleasure  of  taking  you,  and  each  of  you,  by  the  hand. 

26th.  (To  S.  P.  Chase.)  It  gave  me  great  pleasure  to 
receive  yours,  mistakenly  dated  May  17.  Holding  myself  the 
humblest  of  all  whose  names  were  before  the  convention,  I  feel 
in  especial  need  of  the  assistance  of  all;  and  I  am  glad — very 
glad — of  the  indication  that  you  stand  ready.  It  is  a  great 
consolation  that  so  nearly  all — all  except  Mr.  Bates  and  Mr. 
Clay,  I  believe — of  those  distinguished  and  able  men  are  al- 
ready in  high  position  to  do  service  in  the  common  cause. 

(To  C.  B.  Smith.)  Yours  of  the  21st  was  duly  received; 
but  I  have  found  no  time  until  now,  to  say  a  word  in  the  way 
of  answer.    I  am,  indeed,  much  indebted  to  Indiana;  and,  as 


202  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

my  home  friends  tell  me,  much  to  you  personally.  Your  saying 
you  no  longer  consider  Iowa  a  doubtful  State  is  very  gratifying. 
The  thing  stacts  well  everywhere — too  well,  I  almost  fear,  to 
last.   But  we  are  in,  and  stick  or  go  through,  must  be  the  word. 

31st,  (To  Charles  C.  Nott.)  Yours  of  the  23rd  accom- 
panied by  a  copy  of  the  speech  delivered  by  me  at  the  Cooper 
Institute,  and  upon  which  you  make  some  notes  for  emenda- 
tions, was  received  some  days  ago.  Of  course  I  would  not 
object  to,  but  would  be  pleased  rather,  with  a  more  pejfect 
edition  of  that  speech. 

I  did  not  preserve  memoranda  of  my  investigations ;  and  I 
could  not  now  reexamine,  and  make  notes,  without  an  expendi- 
ture of  time  which  I  can  not  put  on  it.  Some  of  your  notes  I 
do  not  understand. 

So  far  as  it  is  intended  merely  to  improve  in  grammar  and 
elegance  of  composition,  I  am  quite  agreed;  but  I  do  not  wish 
the  sense  changed,  or  modified,  to  a  hair's  breadth. 

June  '$th.  (To  Trumbull.)  I  see  by  the  papers  this  morn- 
ing, that  Mr.  Fillmore  refuses  to  go  with  us.  What  do  the 
New  Yorkers  at  Washington  think  of  this?  Governor  Reeder 
was  here  last  evening  direct  from  Pennsylvania.  He  is  entirely 
confident  of  that  State,  and  of  the  general  result.  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  heard  General  Cameron's  opinion  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Weed  was  here  and  saw  me;  but  he  showed  no 
signs  whatever  of  the  intriguer.  He  asked  for  nothing;  and 
said  New  York  is  safe,  without  condition. 

Remembering  that  Peter  denied  his  Lord  with  an  oath, 
after  most  solemnly  protesting  that  he  never  would,  I  will  not 
swear  that  I  will  make  no  committals ;  but  I  do  think  I  will  not. 

28th.  (To  William  Cullen  Bryant.)  Please  accept  my 
thanks  for  the  honor  done  me  in  your  letter  of  the  16th.  I  ap- 
preciate the  danger  against  which  you  would  guard  me ;  nor  am 
I  wanting  in  the  purpose  to  avoid  it.  I  thank  you  for  the  ad- 
ditional strength  your  words  give  me  to  maintain  that  purpose. 


age  5i]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  203 

July  4th.  (To  A.  G.  Henry.)  Our  boy,  in  his  tenth  year, 
(the  baby  when  you  left),  has  just  had  a  hard  and  tedious  spell 
of  scarlet  fever,  and  he  is  not  yet  beyond  all  danger.  I  have 
a  headache  and  a  sore  throat  upon  me  now,  inducing  me  to 
suspect  that  I  have  an  inferior  type  of  the  same  thing. 

Our  eldest  boy,  Bob,  has  been  away  from  us  nearly  a  year 
at  school,  and  will  enter  Harvard  University  this  month.  He 
promises  very  well,  considering  we  never  controlled  him  much. 

1 8th.  (To  Hannibal  Hamlin.)  It  appears  to  me  that  you 
and  I  ought  to  be  acquainted,  and  accordingly  I  write  this  as  a 
sort  of  introduction  of  myself  to  you.  You  first  entered  the 
Senate  during  the  single  term  I  was  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  but  I  have  no  recollection  that  we  were 
introduced.    I  shall  be  pleased  to  receive  a  line  from  you. 

The  prospect  of  the  Republican  success  now  appears  very 
flattering,  so  far  as  I  can  perceive.  Do  you  see  anything  to 
the  contrary? 

2 1  st.  (To  A.  Jonas.)  I  suppose  that  as  good  or  even 
better  men  than  I  may  have  been  in  American  or  Know- 
Nothing  lodges;  but,  in  point  of  fact,  I  never  was  in  one,  in 
Quincy  or  elsewhere.  I  was  never  in  Quincy  but  one  day  and 
two  nights  while  Know-Nothing  lodges  were  in  existence,  and 
you  were  with  me  that  day  and  both  those  nights.  I  had  never 
been  there  before  in  my  life,  and  never  afterward,  till  the  joint 
debate  with  Douglas  in  1858.  It  was  in  1854  when  I  spoke 
in  some  hall  there,  and  after  the  speaking,  you,  with  others, 
took  me  to  an  oyster-saloon,  passed  an  hour  there,  and  you 
walked  with  me  to,  and  parted  with  me  at  the  Quincy  House, 
quite  late  at  night.  I  left  by  stage  for  Naples  before  daylight 
in  the  morning,  having  come  in  by  the  same  route  after  dark 
the  evening  previous  to  the  speaking,  when  I  found  you  wait- 
ing at  the  Quincy  House  to  meet  me. 

And  now  a  word  of  caution.  Our  adversaries  think  they 
can  gain  a  point  if  they  could  force  me  to  openly  deny  the 


204  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

charge,  by  which  some  degree  of  offense  would  be  given  to  the 
Americans.  For  this  reason  it  must  not  publicly  appear  that  I 
am  paying  any  attention  to  the  charge. 

30th.  (To  Thomas  Doney.)  The  picture  (I  know  not  the 
artistic  designation)  was  duly  and  thankfully  received.  I  con- 
sider it  a  very  excellent  one ;  though,  truth  to  say,  I  am  a  very 
indifferent  judge. 

August  15th.  (To  John  B.  Fry.)  Yours  of  the  9th,  en- 
closing the  letter  of  Honorable  John  Minor  Botts,  was  duly 
received.  The  latter  is  herewith  returned,  according  to  your 
request.  It  contains  one  of  the  many  assurances  I  receive 
from  the  South,  that  in  no  probable  event  will  there  be  any 
formidable  effort  to  break  up  the  Union.  The  people  of  the 
South  have  too  much  of  good  sense  and  good  temper  to  attempt 
the  ruin  of  the  government  rather  than  see  it  administered  as 
it  was  administered  by  the  men  who  made  it.  At  least,  so  I 
hope  and  believe. 

17th,  Douglas  is  managing  the  Bell  element  with  great 
adroitness.  He  has  his  men  in  Kentucky  to  vote  for  the  Bell 
candidate,  producing  a  result  which  has  badly  alarmed  and 
damaged  Breckenridge,  and  at  the  same  time  has  induced  the 
Bell  men  to  suppose  that  Bell  will  certainly  be  President  if 
they  can  keep  a  few  of  the  Northern  States  away  from  us  by 
throwing  them  to  Douglas. 

September  22nd.  (To  Mrs.  M.  J.  Green.)  Your  kind  con- 
gratulatory letter  of  August  was  received  in  due  course,  and 
should  have  been  answered  sooner.  The  truth  is  I  have  never 
corresponded  much  with  ladies ;  and  hence  I  postpone  writing 
letters  to  them,  as  a  business  which  I  do  not  understand.  I 
can  only  say  now  I  thank  you  for  the  good  opinion  you  ex- 
press of  me,  fearing,  at  the  same  time,  I  may  not  be  able  to 
maintain  it  through  life. 

28th.  (To  Professor  Gardner.)  Some  specimens  of  your 
scap  have  been  used  at  our  house  and  Mrs.  L.  declares  it  is  a 


age  si]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  205 

superior  article.  She  at  the  same  time  protests  that  I  have 
never  given  sufficient  attention  to  the  "soap  question"  to  be 
a  competent  judge. 

October  ipth.  (To  Miss  Grace  Bedell.)  Your  very 
agreeable  letter  of  the  15th  is  received.  I  regret  the  necessity 
of  saying  I  have  no  daughter.  I  have  three  sons — one  seven- 
teen, one  nine,  and  one  seven.  They  with  their  mother  con- 
stitute my  whole  family.  As  to  the  whiskers,  having  never 
wrorn  any,  do  you  not  think  people  would  call  it  a  piece  of  silly 
affectation  if  I  were  to  begin  now? 

23rd.  (To  David  Turnham.)  Your  kind  letter  of  the  7th 
is  received.  I  am  very  glad  to  learn  you  are  still  living  and 
well.  I  well  remember  when  you  and  I  last  met,  after  a  sep- 
aration of  fourteen  years,  at  the  cross-road  voting  place  in  the 
fall  of  1844.  It  is  now  sixteen  years  more  and  we  are  both 
no  longer  young  men.  I  suppose  you  are  a  grandfather; 
and  I,  though  married  much  later  in  life,  have  a  son  nearly 
grown. 

I  would  like  much  to  visit  the  old  home,  and  old  friends  of 
my  boyhood,  but  I  fear  the  chance  of  doing  so  is  not  very 
good. 

24th.  (To  J.  C.  Lee.)  I  never  gave  fifty  dollars,  nor  one 
dollar,  nor  one  cent,  for  the  object  you  mention,  or  any  such 
object. 

I  once  subscribed  twenty-five  dollars,  to  be  paid  whenever 
Judge  Logan  would  decide  it  was  necessary  to  enable  the  peo- 
ple of  Kansas  to  defend  themselves  against  any  force  coming 
against  them  from  without  the  Territory,  and  not  by 
authority  of  the  United  States.  Logan  never  made  the  de- 
cision, and  I  never  paid  a  dollar  on  the  subscription.  The 
whole  of  this  can  be  seen  in  the  files  of  the  Illinois  Journal, 
since  the  first  of  June  last. 

26th.  (To  Major  David  Hunter.)  I  have  another  letter 
from  a  writer  unknown  to  me,  saying  the  officers  of  the  army 


206  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

at  Fort  Kearney  have  determined,  in  case  of  Republican  suc- 
cess at  the  approaching  presidential  election,  to  take  them- 
selves, and  the  arms  at  that  point,  South,  for  the  purpose  of 
resistance  to  the  government.  While  I  think  there  are  many 
chances  to  one  that  this  is  a  humbug,  it  occurs  to  me  that  any 
real  movement  of  this  sort  in  the  army  would  leak  out  and 
become  known  to  you.  In  such  case,  if  it  would  not  be  un- 
professional or  dishonorable  (of  which  you  are  to  be  the 
judge),  I  shall  be  much  obliged  if  you  will  apprise  me  of  it. 

November  6th.     Elected  President. 

yth.  It  was  just  after  my  election  in  i860,  when  the  news 
had  been  coming  in  thick  and  fast  all  day  and  there  had  been  a 
great  "hurrah  boys,"  so  that  I  was  well  tired  out  and  went 
home  to  rest,  throwing  myself  down  on  a  lounge  in  my  cham- 
ber. Opposite  where  I  lay  was  a  bureau  with  a  swinging  glass 
upon  it,  and  looking  in  that  glass,  I  saw  myself  reflected  al- 
most at  full  length;  but  my  face,  I  noticed,  had  two  separate 
and  distinct  images,  the  tip  of  the  nose  of  one  being  about 
three  inches  from  the  tip  of  the  other.  I  was  a  little  bothered, 
perhaps  startled,  and  got  up  and  looked  in  the  glass,  but  the 
illusion  vanished.  On  lying  down  again,  I  saw  it  a  second 
time,  plainer,  if  possible,  than  before;  and  then  I  noticed  that 
one  of  the  faces  was  a  little  paler — say,  five  shades — than  the 
other.  I  got  up,  and  the  thing  melted  away,  and  I  went  off, 
and  in  the  excitement  of  the  hour  I  forgot  about  it — nearly, 
but  not  quite,  for  the  thing  would  once  in  a  while  come  up,  and 
give  me  a  little  pang,  as  if  something  uncomfortable  had  hap- 
pened. When  I  went  home  again  that  night,  I  told  my  wife 
about  it,  and  a  few  days  afterward  I  made  the  experiment 
again,  when,  sure  enough!  the  thing  came  again;  but  I  never 
succeeded  in  bringing  the  ghost  back  after  that,  though  I  once 
tried  very  industriously  to  show  it  to  my  wife,  who  was  some- 


age  si]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  207 

what  worried  about  it.  She  thought  it  was  a  "sign"  that  I 
was  to  be  elected  to  a  second  term  of  office,  and  that  the  pale- 
ness of  one  of  the  faces  was  an  omen  that  I  should  not  see  life 
through  the  last  term. 

19th.  (To  Park  Benjamin.)  Your  kind  note  of  congrat- 
ulation was  received  in  due  course;  and  you  are  not  dis- 
appointed in  the  hope  you  express  that  I  may  set  some  value 
upon  it. 

That  my  political  position,  and  personal  history  are  such  as 
to  meet  the  unselfish  approval  of  one  possessing  your  high 
literary  fame  and  character,  is  matter  of  sincere  pride  with 
me. 

20th.  (Remarks  at  the  meeting  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  to 
celebrate  his  election.)  Please  excuse  me  on  this  occasion  from 
making  a  speech.  I  thank  you  in  common  with  all  those  who 
have  thought  fit  by  their  votes  to  endorse  the  Republican 
cause.  I  rejoice  with  you  in  the  success  which  has  thus  far 
attended  the  cause.  Yet  in  all  our  rejoicings,  let  us  neither 
express  nor  cherish  any  hard  feelings  toward  any  citizen  who 
by  his  vote  has  differed  with  us.  Let  us  at  all  times  remember 
that  all  American  citizens  are  brothers  of  a  common  country, 
and  should  dwell  together  in  the  bonds  of  fraternal  feeling. 
Let  me  again  beg  you  to  accept  my  thanks,  and  to  excuse  me 
from  further  speaking  at  this  time. 

I  have  labored  in,  and  for,  the  Republican  organization 
with  entire  confidence  that  whenever  it  shall  be  in  power,  each 
and  all  of  the  States  shall  be  left  in  as  complete  control  of  their 
affairs  respectively,  and  at  as  perfect  liberty  to  choose,  and  em- 
ploy, their  own  means  of  protecting  property,  and  preserving 
peace  and  order  within  their  respective  limits,  as  they  have  ever 
been  under  any  administration.  Those  who  have  voted  for 
Mr.  Lincoln,  have  expected,  and  still  expect  this;  and  they 
would  not  have  voted  for  him  had  they  expected  otherwise. 
I  regard  it  as  extremely  fortunate  for  the  peace  of  the  whole 


208  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

country,  that  this  point,  upon  which  the  Republicans  have  been 
so  long,  and  so  persistently  misrepresented,  is  now  to  be 
brought  to  a  practical  test,  and  placed  beyond  the  possibility 
of  doubt.  Disunionists  per  se,  are  now  in  hot  haste  to  get 
out  of  the  Union,  precisely  because  they  perceive  they  can  not, 
much  longer,  maintain  apprehension  among  the  Southern  peo- 
ple that  their  homes,  and  firesides,  and  lives,  are  to  be  endan- 
gered by  the  action  of  the  Federal  Government.  With  such, 
"Now  or  never'  is  the  maxim. 

I  am  rather  glad  of  this  military  preparation  in  the  South. 
It  will  enable  the  people  more  easily  to  suppress  any  uprisings 
there,  which  their  misrepresentations  of  purposes  may  have 
encouraged. 

28th.  (To  Henry  J.  Raymond.)  Yours  of  the  14th  was 
received  in  due  course.  I  have  delayed  so  long  to  answer  it, 
because  my  reason  for  not  coming  before  the  public  in  any 
form  just  now  had  substantially  appeared  in  your  paper  (the 
Times),  and  hence  I  feared  they  were  not  deemed  sufficient  by 
you,  else  you  would  not  have  written  me  as  you  did.  I  now 
think  we  have  a  demonstration  in  favor  of  my  view.  On  the 
20th  instant  Senator  Trumbull  made  a  short  speech,  which  I 
suppose  you  have  both  seen  and  approved.  Has  a  single  news- 
paper, heretofore  against  us,  urged  that  speech  upon  its  readers 
with  a  purpose  to  quiet  public  anxiety?  Not  one,  so  far  as  I 
know.  On  the  contrary,  the  Boston  Courier  and  its  class 
hold  me  responsible  for  that  speech,  and  endeavor  to  inflame 
the  North  with  the  belief  that  it  foreshadows  an  abandonment 
of  Republican  ground  by  the  incoming  administration;  while 
the  Washington  Constitution  and  its  class  hold  the  same  speech 
up  to  the  South  as  an  open  declaration  of  war  against  them. 
This  is  just  as  I  expected,  and  just  what  would  happen  with 
any  declaration  I  could  make.  These  political  friends  are  not 
half  sick  enough  yet.  Party  malice,  and  not  public  good 
possesses  them  entirely.     "They  seek  a  sign,  and  no  sign  shall 


age  si]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  209 

be  given  them."     At  least   such   is  my  present   feeling  and 
purpose. 

December  6th.  Sells  the  Illinois  Staats  Anzeiger  to  Theo- 
dore Canisius. 

8th.  I  regret  exceedingly  the  anxiety  of  our  friends  in 
New  York,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  sentiment  in  that  state 
which  sent  a  united  delegation  to  Chicago  in  favor  of  Governor 
Seward  ought  not  and  must  not  be  snubbed,  as  it  would  be  by 
the  omission  to  offer  Gov.  S.  a  place  in  the  Cabinet.  I 
will  myself  fake  care  of  the  question  of  ''corrupt  jobs"  and 
see  that  justice  is  done  to  all  our  friends  as  well  as  others. 

(To  W.  H.  Seward.)  With  your  permission  I  shall  at  the 
proper  time  nominate  you  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation  as 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  United  States. 

(To  Seward.)  In  addition  to  the  accompanying  and  more 
formal  note  inviting  you  to  take  charge  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment, I  deem  it  proper  to  address  you  this.  Rumors  have  got 
into  the  newspapers  to  the  effect  that  the  Department  named 
above  would  be  tendered  you  as  a  compliment,  and  with  the 
expectation  that  you  would  decline  it.  I  beg  you  to  be  assured 
that  I  have  said  nothing  to  justify  these  rumors.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  has  been  my  purpose,  from  the  day  of  the  nomination 
at  Chicago,  to  assign  you,  by  your  leave,  this  place  in  the  ad- 
ministration. I  have  delayed  so  long  to  communicate  that 
purpose  in  deference  to  what  appeared  to  me  a  proper  caution 
in  the  case.  Nothing  has  been  developed  to  change  my  view 
in  the  premises ;  and  now  I  offer  you  the  place  in  the  hope  that 
you  will  accept  it,  and,  with  the  belief  that  your  position  in  the 
public  eye,  your  integrity,  ability,  learning,  and  great  expe- 
rience, all  combine  to  render  it  an  appointment  preeminently 
fit  to  be  made. 


210  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

One  word  more.  In  regard  to  the  patronage  sought  with 
so  much  eagerness  and  jealousy,  I  have  prescribed  for  myself 
the  maxim,  "Justice  to  all;"  and  I  earnestly  beseech  your  co- 
operation in  keeping  the  maxim  good. 

While  the  Republicans  have  been  engrossed  in  the  political 
campaign  an  agitation  for  an  ultimatum  has  been  carried  on 
in  the  South.  The  opening  of  Congress  is  followed  by  a  de- 
mand for  a  new  compact  between  the  sections.  The  Senate 
appoints  a  Committee  of  Thirteen  to  consider  the  matter.  For 
a  moment  the  Republican  leaders  at  Washington  seem  inclined 
to  fall  back  upon  the  old  position  of  1854  and  redivide  the  Ter- 
ritories between  the  North  and  the  South  on  the  line  of  360  30'. 
Lincoln  exerts  all  his  influence  to  prevent  this  compromise. 

nth.  (To  William  Kellogg.)  Entertain  no  proposition 
for  a  compromise  in  regard  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  The 
instant  you  do,  they  have  us  under  again ;  all  our  labor  is  lost, 
and  sooner  or  later  must  be  done  over.  Douglas  is  sure  to  be 
again  trying  to  bring  in  his  "popular  sovereignty."  Have  none 
of  it.  The  tug  has  to  come,  and  better  now  than  later.  You 
know  I  think  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  of  the  Constitution  ought 
to  be  enforced — to  put  it  in  its  mildest  form,  ought  not  to  be 
resisted. 

13th.  (To  E.  B.  Washburne.)  Prevent,  as  far  as  possible, 
any  of  our  friends  from  demoralizing  themselves  and  our 
cause  by  entertaining  propositions  for  compromise  of  any  sort 
on  "slavery  extension."  There  is  no  possible  compromise  upon 
it  but  which  puts  us  under  again,  and  leaves  all  our  work  to 
do  over  again.  Whether  it  be  a  Missouri  line  or  Eli  Thayer's 
popular  sovereignty,  it  is  all  the  same.  Let  either  be  done,  and 
immediately  filibustering  and  extending  slavery  recommences. 
On  that  point  hold  firm,  as  with  a  chain  of  steel. 

Ifth.     (To  Thurlow  Weed.)     Should  the  convocation  of 


age  5i]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  211 

governors  of  which  you  speak  seem  desirous  to  know  my  views 
on  the  present  aspect  of  things,  tell  them  you  judge  from  my 
speeches  that  I  will  be  inflexible  on  the  territory  question ;  that 
I  probably  think  either  the  Missouri  line  extended,  or  Doug- 
las's and  Eli  Thayer's  popular  sovereignty,  would  lose  us 
everything  we  gain  by  the  election;  that  filibustering  for  all 
south  of  us  and  making  slave  States  of  it  would  follow,  in 
spite  of  us,  in  either  case;  also  that  I  probably  think  all  oppo- 
sition, real  and  apparent,  to  the  fugitive  slave  cause  of  the  Con- 
stitution ought  to  be  withdrawn. 

I  believe  you  can  pretend  to  find  but  little,  if  anything,  in 
my  speeches,  about  secession.  But  my  opinion  is,  that  no  State 
can  in  any  way  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  others ;  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  President  and 
other  government  functionaries  to  run  the  machine  as  it  is. 

20th.  The  situation  is  immensely  complicated  by  the  seces- 
sion of  South  Carolina,  while  the  Committee  of  Thirteen  is 
hopelessly  divided,  and  Lincoln  stands  firm  for  no  concessions. 

On  this  same  day  Thurlow  Weed,  whom  Seward  has  sent 
to  Springfield  to  confer  with  Lincoln,  receives  his  final  state- 
ment of  his  position  in  the  form  of  a  set  of  resolutions. 

(Memorandum  given  to  Weed.)'  Resolved:  The  fugitive 
slave  clause  of  the  Constitution  ought  to  be  enforced  by  a  law 
of  Congress,  with  efficient  provisions  for  that  object,  not 
obliging  private  persons  to  assist  in  its  execution,  and  with  the 
usual  safeguards  to  liberty,  securing  free  men  against  being 
surrendered  as  slaves. 

That  all  State  laws,  if  there  be  such,  really  or  apparently 
in  conflict  with  such  law  of  Congress,  ought  to  be  repealed; 
and  no  opposition  to  the  execution  of  such  law  of  Congress 
ought  to  be  made. 

That  the  Federal  Union  must  be  preserved. 

2 1st.     (To  Lyman  Trumbull.)     Thurlow  Weed  was  with 


212  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [i860 

me  nearly  all  day  yesterday,  and  left  last  night  with  three  short 
resolutions  which  I  drew  up,  and  which,  or  the  substance  of 
which,  I  think,  would  do  much  good  if  introduced  and  unani- 
mously supported  by  our  friends.  They  do  not  touch  the  ter- 
ritorial question.  Mr.  Weed  goes  to  Washington  with 
them;  and  says  he  will  first  of  all  confer  with  you  and  Mr. 
Hamlin.  I  think  it  would  be  best  for  Mr.  Seward  to  introduce 
them,  and  Mr.  Weed  will  let  him  know  that  I  think  so.  Show 
this  to  Mr.  Hamlin,  but  beyond  him  do  not  let  my  name  be 
known  in  the  matter. 

(To  E.  B.  Washburne.)  Last  night  I  received  your  letter 
giving  an  account  of  your  interview  with  General  Scott,  and 
for  which  I  thank  you.  Please  present  my  respects  to  the 
General,  and  tell  him,  confidentially,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  him 
to  be  as  well  prepared  as  he  can  to  either  hold  or  retake  the 
forts,  as  the  case  may  require,  at  and  after  the  inauguration. 

2 2nd.  (To  Alexander  H.  Stephens.)  Your  obliging 
answer  to  my  short  note  is  just  received,  and  for  which  please 
accept  my  thanks.  I  fully  appreciate  the  present  peril  the  coun- 
try is  in,  and  the  weight  of  responsibility  on  me.  Do  the 
people  of  the  South  really  entertain  fears  that  a  Republican 
administration  would,  directly  or  indirectly,  interfere  with  the 
slaves,  or  with  them  about  the  slaves?  If  they  do,  I  wish  to 
assure  you,  as  once  a  friend,  and  still  I  hope  not  an  enemy,  that 
there  is  no  cause  for  such  fears.  The  South  would  be  in  no 
more  danger  in  this  respect  than  it  was  in  the  days  of  Wash- 
ington. I  suppose,  however,  this  does  not  meet  the  case.  You 
think  slavery  is  right  and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  we 
think  it  is  wrong  and  ought  to  be  restricted.  That,  I  suppose, 
is  the  rub.  It  certainly  is  the  only  substantial  difference  be- 
tween us. 

24th.  I  expect  to  be  able  to  offer  Mr.  Blair  a  place  in  the 
Cabinet;  but  I  can  not,  as  yet,  be  committed  on  the  matter,  to 
any  extent  whatever. 


age  5i]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  213 

Despatches  have  come  here  two  days  in  succession,  that  the 
Forts  in  South  Carolina  will  be  surrendered  by  the  order,  or 
consent  at  least,  of  the  President  [Buchanan]. 

I  can  scarcely  believe  this ;  but  if  it  prove  true,  I  will,  if  our 
friends  at  Washington  concur,  announce  publicly  at  once  that 
they  are  to  be  retaken  after  the  inauguration.  This  will  give 
the  Union  men  a  rallying  cry,  and  preparation  will  proceed 
somewhat  on  their  side,  as  well  as  on  the  other. 

(To  Hannibal  Hamlin.)  I  need  a  man  (in  the  Cab- 
inet) of  Democratic  antecedents  from  New  England.  I  can 
not  get  a  fair  share  of  that  element  in  without.  This  stands  in 
the  way  of  Mr.  Adams.  I  think  of  Governor  Banks,  Mr. 
Welles,  and  Mr.  Tuck.  Which  of  them  do  the  New  England 
delegation  prefer?    Or  shall  I  decide  for  myself? 

28th.  Committee  of  Thirteen  reports,  in  effect,  that  it  can 
not  devise  a  sectional  compact  which  both  North  and  South  will 
accept.  The  Southern  members  of  the  Committee  will  not  agree 
to  anything  short  of  a  redivision  of  the  Territories  between 
slavery  and  freedom.  The  Republican  members  under  Lincoln's 
direction  refuse  to  concur  in  the  establishment  of  any  new  slave 
Territories.   Thus  the  compromise  negotiations  come  to  an  end. 

30th.  South  Carolina  demands  the  withdrawal  of  Federal 
garrisons  from  all  forts  within  her  borders. 

j  1st.  (To  Salmon  P.  Chase.)  In  these  troublous  times  I 
would  much  like  a  conference  with  you.  Please  visit  me  here 
at  once. 

(To  Simon  Cameron.)  I  think  fit  to  notify  you  now,  that 
by  your  permission  I  shall  at  the  proper  time  nominate  you  to 
the  United  States  Senate  for  confirmation  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  or  as  Secretary  of  War — which  of  the  two  I  have 
not  yet  definitely  decided.  Please  answer  at  your  earliest  con- 
venience. 


1861 

January.  There  were  stories  and  rumors  before  I  left 
home,  about  people  who  intended  to  do  me  mischief.  I  never 
attached  much  importance  to  them — never  wanted  to  believe 
any  such  thing  about  them  in  the  way  of  taking  precautions  and 
the  like.  Some  of  my  friends,  though,  thought  differently — 
Judd  and  others — and  without  my  knowledge,  they  employed 
a  detective  (Allan  Pinkerton)  to  look  into  the  matter. 

(To  Joseph  Gillespie.)  Every  hour  adds  to  the  difficulties 
I  am  called  upon  to  meet,  and  the  present  administration  does 
nothing  to  check  the  tendency  toward  dissolution.  I,  who 
have  been  called  to  meet  this  awful  responsibility,  am  compelled 
to  remain  here  doing  nothing  to  avert  it  or  lessen  its  force 
when  it  comes  to  me. 

Secession  is  being  fostered  rather  than  repressed,  and  if 
the  doctrine  meets  with  a  general  acceptance  in  the  border 
States,  it  will  be  a  great  blow  to  the  government.  I  suppose 
you  will  never  forget  that  trial  down  in  Montgomery  County, 
where  the  lawyer  associated  with  you  gave  away  the  whole  case 
in  his  opening  speech.  I  saw  you  signaling  to  him,  but  you 
couldn't  stop  him.  Now,  that's  just  the  way  with  me  and 
Buchanan.  He  is  giving  away  the  case,  and  I  have  nothing  to 
say,  and  can't  stop  him. 

While  Lincoln  is  deeply  distressed  over  the  course  of  events 
at  Washington  which  he  is  powerless  to  control,  the  intrigues 
at  Springfield  over  Cabinet  appointments  drive  him  well  nigh 
to  distraction.  He  feels  constrained  in  some  cases  to  reconsider 
his  first  intentions. 

214 


age  5i]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  215 

jrd.  (To  Cameron.)  When  you  were  here,  about  the  last 
of  December,  I  handed  you  a  letter  saying  I  should  at  the 
proper  time  nominate  you  to  the  Senate  for  a  place  in  the  Cab- 
inet. It  is  due  to  you  and  to  truth  for  me  to  say  you  were  here 
by  my  invitation,  and  not  upon  any  suggestion  of  your  own. 
You  have  not  as  yet  signified  to  me  whether  you  would  accept 
the  appointment,  and  with  much  pain  I  now  say  to  you  that  you 
will  relieve  me  from  great  embarrassment  by  allowing  me  to 
recall  the  offer.  This  springs  from  an  unexpected  complica- 
tion, and  not  from  any  change  of  my  view  as  to  the  ability  or 
faithfulness  with  which  you  would  discharge  the  duties  of  the 
place. 

I  now  think  I  will  not  definitely  fix  upon  any  appointment 
for  Pennsylvania  until  I  reach  Washington. 

You  will  say  this  comes  of  an  interview  with  McClure ; 
and  this  is  partly,  but  not  wholly,  true.  The  more  potent  mat- 
ter is  wholly  outside  of  Pennsylvania;  and  yet  I  am  not  at 
liberty  to  specify  it.  Enough  that  it  appears  to  me  to  be 
sufficient.  And  now  I  suggest  that  you  write  me  declining  the 
appointment,  in  which  case  I  do  not  object  to  its  being  known 
that  it  was  tendered  you.  Better  do  this  at  once,  before  things 
so  change  that  you  can  not  honorably  decline,  and  I  be  com- 
pelled to  openly  recall  the  tender.  No  person  living  knows  or 
has  an  intimation  that  I  write  this  letter. 

(To  Seward.)  I  have  been  considering  your  suggestions 
as  to  my  reaching  Washington  somewhat  earlier  than  is  usual. 
It  seems  to  me  the  inauguration  is  not  the  most  dangerous 
point  for  us.  Our  adversaries  have  us  now  clearly  at  dis- 
advantage. On  the  second  Wednesday  of  February,  when 
the  votes  should  be  officially  counted,  if  the  two  Houses  refuse 
to  meet  at  all,  or  meet  without  a  quorum  of  each,  where  shall 
we  be?  I  do  not  think  that  this  counting  is  constitutionally 
essential  to  the  election ;  but  how  are  we  to  proceed  in  absence 
of  it?    In  view  of  this,  I  think  it  best  for  me  not  to  attempt 


216  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

appearing  in  Washington  till  the  result  of  that  ceremony  is 
known. 

It  certainly  would  be  of  some  advantage  if  you  could  know 
who  are  to  be  at  the  heads  of  the  War  and  Navy  departments ; 
but  until  I  can  ascertain  definitely  whether  I  can  get  any  suit- 
able men  from  the  South,  and  who,  and  how  many,  I  can  not 
well  decide.  As  yet,  I  have  no  word  from  Mr.  Gilmer  in 
answer  to  my  request  for  an  interview  with  him.  I  look  for 
something  on  the  subject,  through  you,  before  long. 

Jth.  Gen.  C.  has  not  been  offered  the  Treasury  and  I  think 
he  will  not  be.  It  seems  to  me  not  only  highly  proper  but  a 
necessity  that  Gov.  Chase  shall  take  their  place.  His  ability, 
firmness,  and  purity  of  character  produce  this  propriety;  and 
that  he  alone  can  reconcile  Mr.  Bryant  and  his  class  to  the 
appointment  of  Gov.  C.  to  the  State  Department  produces  the 
necessity.  But  then  comes  the  danger  that  the  protectionists  of 
Pennsylvania  will  be  dissatisfied;  and  to  clear  this  difficulty 
Gen.  C.  must  be  brought  to  co-operate.  He  would  readily  do 
this  for  the  War  Department.  But  then  comes  the  fierce  op- 
position to  his  having  any  Department,  threatening  even  to 
send  charges  into  the  Senate  to  procure  his  rejection  by  that 
body.  Now,  what  I  would  most  like,  and  what  I  think  he 
should  prefer  too,  under  the  circumstances,  would  be  to  retain 
his  place  in  the  Senate,  and  if  that  place  has  been  promised  to 
another  let  that  other  take  a  respectable  and  reasonably  lucra- 
tive place  abroad.  Also,  let  Gen.  C.'s  friends  be,  with  entire 
fairness,  cared  for  in  Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere. 

pth.     Mississippi  secedes. 
10th.     Florida  secedes. 

nth.  (To  General  Win  field  Scott.)  I  herewith  beg  leave 
to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  communication  of  the  4th 
instant,  inclosing  (documents  Nos.  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  and  6)  copies 


age  5i]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  217 

of  correspondence  and  notes  of  conversation  with  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  and  the  Secretary  of  War  concerning 
various  military  movements  suggested  by  yourself  and  the 
maintenance  of  public  order. 

Permit  me  to  renew  to  you  the  assurance  of  my  high  appre- 
ciation of  the  many  past  services  you  have  rendered  the  Union, 
and  of  my  deep  gratification  at  this  evidence  of  your  present 
active  exertions  to  maintain  the  integrity  and  honor  of  the 
nation. 

I  shall  be  highly  pleased  to  receive  from  time  to  time  such 
communications  from  yourself  as  you  may  deem  it  proper  to 
make  to  me. 

What  is  your  present  condition  ?  We  have  just  carried  an 
election  on  principles  fairly  stated  to  the  people.  Now  we  are 
told  in  advance  the  government  shall  be  broken  up  unless  we 
surrender  to  those  we  have  beaten,  before  we  take  the  offices. 
In  this  they  are  either  attempting  to  play  upon  us  or  they  are 
in  dead  earnest.  Either  way,  if  we  surrender,  it  is  the  end  of 
us  and  of  the  government.  They  will  repeat  the  experiment 
upon  us  ad  libitum.  A  year  will  not  pass  till  we  shall  have  t@ 
take  Cuba  as  a  condition  upon  which  they  will  stay  in  the 
Union.  They  now  have  the  Constitution  under  which  we  have 
lived  over  seventy  years,  and  acts  of  Congress  of  their  own 
framing,  with  no  prospect  of  their  being  changed;  and  they 
can  never  have  a  more  shallow  pretext  for  breaking  up  the 
government,  or  extorting  a  compromise,  than  now.  There  is 
in  my  judgment  but  one  compromise  which  would  really  settle 
the  slavery  question,  and  that  would  be  a  prohibition  against 
acquiring  any  more  territory. 

nth.     Alabama  secedes. 

1 2th.  (To  W.  H.  Seward.)  I  still  hope  Mr.  Gilmer  will, 
on  a  fair  understanding  with  us,  consent  to  take  a  place  in  the 


218  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

Cabinet.  The  preference  for  him  over  Mr.  Hunt  or  Mr. 
Gentry  is,  that,  up  to  date,  he  has  a  living  position  in  the  South, 
while  they  have  not.  He  is  only  better  than  Winter  Davis  in 
that  he  is  farther  South.  I  fear,  if  we  could  not  safely  take 
more  than  one  such  man — that  is,  not  more  than  one  who  op- 
posed us  in  the  election — the  danger  being  to  lose  the  confi- 
dence of  our  own  friends. 

Your  selection  for  the  State  Department  having  become 
public,  I  am  happy  to  find  scarcely  any  objection  to  it.  I  shall 
have  trouble  with  every  other  Northern  Cabinet  appointment — 
so  much  so,  that  I  shall  have  to  defer  them  as  long  as  possible, 
to  avoid  being  teased  to  insanity,  to  make  changes. 

14th.  (To  General  John  E.  Wool.)  Many  thanks  for 
your  patriotic  and  generous  letter  of  the  nth  instant.  As  to 
how  far  the  military  force  of  the  government  may  become  nec- 
essary to  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  and  more  particularly 
how  that  force  can  best  be  directed  to  the  object,  I  must  chiefly 
rely  upon  General  Scott  and  yourself.  It  affords  me  the 
profoundest  satisfaction  to  know  that  with  both  of  you  judg- 
ment and  feeling  go  heartily  with  your  sense  of  professional 
and  official  duty  to  the  work. 

1 8th.     Georgia  secedes. 

2 1  st.  Withdrawal  from  the  Senate  of  Jefferson  Davis  and 
other  southern  senators. 

26th.  (To  Mrs.  C.  W.  Pratt.)  Herewith  I  send  you  my 
autograph,  which  you  request. 

26th.     Louisiana  secedes. 

2Qth.  Through  the  withdrawal  of  southern  senators,  the 
Republicans  are  able  to  admit  Kansas  to  the  Union  as  a  free 
state. 

February  2nd.  (To  George  D.  Prentice.)  Yours  of  the 
31st  ult.  requesting  a  copy  of  the  inaugural  is  received.    I  have 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  219 

the  document  blocked  out;  but  in  the  now  rapidly  shifting 
scenes,  I  shall  have  to  hold  it  subject  to  revision  up  to  near  the 
time  of  delivery.  So  soon  as  it  shall  take  what  I  can  regard  as 
its  final  shape,  I  shall  remember,  if  I  can,  to  send  you  a  copy. 

The  seceding  states  through  their  representatives  at  Mont- 
gomery, Alabama,  form  the  Confederate  States  of  America. 

4th.  (To  Thurlow  Weed.)  I  have  both  your  letter  to 
myself  and  that  to  Judge  Davis,  in  relation  to  a  certain  gentle- 
man in  your  State  claiming  to  dispense  patronage  in  my  name, 
and  also  to  be  authorized  to  use  my  name  to  advance  the 
chances  of  Mr.  Greeley  for  an  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate. 

It  is  very  strange  that  such  things  should  be  said  by  any 
one.  The  gentleman  you  mention  did  speak  to  mg  of  Mr. 
Greeley  in  connection  with  the  senatorial  election,  and  I  replied 
in  terms  of  kindness  toward  Mr.  Greeley,  which  I  really  feel, 
but  always  with  an  expressed  protest  that  my  name  must  not 
be  used  in  the  senatorial  election  in  favor  of  or  against  any  one. 
Any  other  representation  of  me  is  a  misrepresentation. 

As  to  the  matter  of  dispensing  patronage,  it  perhaps  will 
surprise  you  to  learn  that  I  have  information  that  you  claim 
to  have  my  authority  to  arrange  that  matter  in  New  York.  I 
do  not  believe  that  you  have  so  claimed ;  but  still  so  some  men 
say.  On  that  subject  you  know  all  I  have  said  to  you  is  "jus- 
tice to  all,"  and  I  have  said  nothing  more  particular  to  any  one. 
I  say  this  to  reassure  you  that  I  have  not  changed  my  position. 

10th.  (To  Herndon,  after  making  final  arrangements  in 
their  law  office.)     Billy,  how  long  have  we  been  together? 

(Herndon:    Over  sixteen  years.) 

We've  never  had  a  cross  word  during  all  that  time,  have 
we?  (After  gathering  up  a  bundle  of  papers:)  Let  it  [their 
old  signboard]   hang  there  undisturbed.     Give  our  clients  to 


220  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

understand  that  the  election  of  a  President  makes  no  change 
in  the  firm  of  Lincoln  &  Herndon.  If  I  live,  I  am  coming 
back  some  time,  and  then  we'll  go  right  on  practising  law  as  if 
nothing  had  happened. 

nth.  On  the  platform  of  the  railway  car  as  he  is  about 
to  leave  Springfield  for  Washington: 

"FRIENDS — No  one  who  has  never  been  placed  in  a  like 
position  can  understand  my  feelings  at  this  hour,  nor  the  op- 
pressive sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  For  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  I  have  lived  among  you,  and  during  all  that  time 
I  have  received  nothing  but  kindness  at  your  hands.  Here  I 
have  lived  from  my  youth,  until  now  I  am  an  old  man.  Flere 
the  most  sacred  ties  of  earth  were  assumed.  Here  all  my  chil- 
dren were  born;  and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried.  To  you, 
dear  friends,  I  owe  all  that  I  have,  all  that  I  am.  All  the 
strange,  checkered  past  seems  to  crowd  now  upon  my  mind. 
To-day  I  leave  you.  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more  difficult  than 
that  which  devolved  upon  Washington.  Unless  the  great  God, 
who  assisted  him,  shall  be  with  and  aid  me,  I  must  fail;  but  if 
the  same  omniscient  mind  and  almighty  arm  that  directed  and 
protected  him  shall  guide  and  support  me,  I  shall  not  fail — I 
shall  succeed.  Let  us  all  pray  that  the  God  of  our  fathers  may 
not  forsake  us  now.  To  Him  I  commend  you  all.  Permit  me 
to  ask,  that,  with  equal  security  and  faith,  you  will  invoke  His 
wisdom  and  guidance  for  me.  With  these  few  words  I  must 
leave  you :  for  how  long  I  know  not.  Friends,  one  and  all,  I 
must  now  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell." 

12th.    At  Indianapolis. 

Solomon  says,  there  is  "a  time  to  keep  silence,"  and  when 
men  wrangle  by  the  mouth  with  no  certainty  that  they  mean 
the  same  thing,  while  using  the  same  word,  it  perhaps  were  as 
well  if  they  would  keep  silence. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  221 

The  words  "coercion"  and  ''invasion"  are  much  used  in 
these  days,  and  often  with  some  temper  and  hot  blood.  Let  us 
make  sure,  if  we  can,  that  we  do  not  misunderstand  the  mean- 
ing of  those  who  use  them.  Let  us  get  exact  definitions  of 
these  words,  not  from  dictionaries,  but  from  the  men  them- 
selves, who  certainly  deprecate  the  things  they  would  represent 
by  the  use  of  words.  What,  then,  is  "coercion"?  What  is 
"invasion"?  Would  the  marching  of  an  army  into  South 
Carolina  without  the  consent  of  her  people,  and  with  hostile 
intent  toward  them,  be  "invasion"  ?  I  certainly  think  it  would ; 
and  it  would  be  "coercion"  also  if  the  South  Carolinians  were 
forced  to  submit.  But  if  the  United  States  should  merely  hold 
and  retake  its  own  forts  and  other  property,  and  collect  the 
duties  on  foreign  importations,  or  even  withhold  the  mails 
from  places  where  they  were  habitually  violated,  would  any  or 
all  of  these  things  be  "invasion"  or  "coercion"  ?  Do  our  pro- 
fessed lovers  of  the  Union,  but  who  spitefully  resolve  that  they 
will  resist  coercion  and  invasion,  understand  that  such  things 
as  these  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  would  be  coercion  or 
invasion  of  a  State?  If  so,  their  idea  of  means  to  preserve 
the  object  of  their  great  affection,  would  seem  to  be  exceed- 
ingly thin  and  airy.  If  sick,  the  little  pills  of  the  homeopathist 
would  be  much  too  large  for  them  to  swallow.  In  their  view, 
the  Union  as  a  family  relation  would  seem  to  be  no  regular 
marriage,  but  rather  a  sort  of  "free-love"  arrangement,  to  be 
maintained  only  on  "passional  attraction." 

By  the  way,  in  what  consists  the  special  sacredness  of  a 
State?  I  speak  not  of  the  position  assigned  to  a  State  in  the 
Union  by  the  Constitution ;  for  that,  by  the  bond,  we  all  recog- 
nize. That  position,  however,  a  State  can  not  carry  out  of  the 
Union  with  it.  I  speak  of  that  assumed  primary  right  of  a 
State  to  rule  all  which  is  less  than  itself,  and  ruin  all  which  is 
larger  than  itself.  If  a  State  and  a  county,  in  a  given  case, 
should  be  equal  in  extent  of  territory,  and  equal  in  number  of 


222  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1861 

inhabitants,  in  what,  as  a  matter  of  principle,  is  the  State  better 
than  the  county?  Would  an  exchange  of  names  be  an  ex- 
change of  rights  upon  principle?  On  what  rightful  principle 
may  a  State,  being  not  more  than  one  fiftieth  part  of  the 
nation,  in  soil  and  population,  break  up  the  nation,  and  then 
coerce  a  proportionally  larger  subdivision  of  itself,  in  the  most 
arbitrary  way?  What  mysterious  right  to  play  tyrant  is  con- 
ferred on  a  district  of  country  with  its  people,  by  merely  calling 
it  a  State  ? 

At  Cincinnati. 

Twenty-four  hours  ago,  at  the  capital  of  Indiana,  I  said 
to  myself  I  have  never  seen  so  many  people  assembled  to- 
gether in  winter  weather.  I  am  no  longer  able  to  say  that. 
But  it  is  what  might  reasonably  have  been  expected — that  this 
great  city  of  Cincinnati  would  thus  acquit  herself  on  such  an 
occasion.  My  friends,  I  am  entirely  overwhelmed  by  the  mag- 
nificence of  the  reception  which  has  been  given,  I  will  not  say 
to  me,  but  to  the  President-elect  of  the  United  States  of 
America.     Most  heartily  do  I  thank  you,  one  and  all,  for  it. 

13th.    At  Columbus.* 

In  the  varying  and  repeatedly  shifting  scenes  I  have  not 


*This  speech  with  its  strange  assurance  that  "there  is  nothing  going 
wrong"  strikes  a  new  note  that  startles  Lincoln's  adherents  and  leads  some  of 
them  to  distrust  his  mental  poise.  His  frame  of  mind  at  this  moment  has 
never  been  satisfactorily  explained.  Throughout  the  months  of  January  and 
February — in  fact,  during  the  whole  winter  of  1860-1861 — he  is  a  psychologi- 
cal puzzle, — unlike  what  he  had  been  and  different  from  what  he  was  soon 
to  be.  There  are  times  when  he  is  quite  himself — as  in  his  firmness  with 
regard  to  his  policy  on  December  20 — but  often  he  is  wavering,  overshadowed, 
wistfully  unhappy.  The  last  interview  with  Herndon  is  typical.  It  is  worth 
remembering  also  that  the  strange  hallucination  mentioned  on  page  206  intro- 
duces this  period. 

Whether  he  felt  suddenly  overpowered  by  his  new  responsibilities  or 
from  some  more  obscure  cause,  he  resists  explanation  all  this  while  and 
seems  frequently  to  be  walking  in  a  troubled  dream.  Looking  back  from 
this  episode  to  those  other  periods  of  mysterious  gloom — following  the  death 
of  Ann  Rutledge,  following  the  breaking  of  his  engagement  to  Mary  Todd— 
one  hesitates  to_  generalize,  merely  observes  and  wonders.  All  his  friends 
agree  that  a  vein  of  deep  melancholy  ran  side  by  side  with  his  boisterous 
humor.  Both  can  be  seen  weaving  in  and  out  through  the  curious  sobriety 
of  his  written  fragments. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  223 

maintained  silence  from  any  want  of  real  anxiety.  It  is  a  good 
thing  that  there  is  no  more  than  anxiety,  for  there  is  nothing 
going  wrong.  It  is  a  consoling  circumstance  that  when  we 
look  out  there  is  nothing  that  really  hurts  anybody.  We  en- 
tertain different  views  upon  political  questions,  but  nobody  is 
suffering. 

14th.    At  Steubenville. 

I  fear  that  the  great  confidence  placed  in  my  ability  is  un- 
founded. Indeed,  I  am  sure  it  is.  Encompassed  by  vast  diffi- 
culties as  I  am,  nothing  shall  be  wanting  on  my  part,  if  sus- 
tained by  the  American  people  and  God.  I  believe  the  devotion 
to  the  Constitution  is  equally  great  on  both  sides  of  the  [Ohio] 
river.  It  is  only  the  different  understanding  of  that  instru- 
ment that  causes  difficulty.  The  only  dispute  on  both  sides  is, 
"What  are  their  rights  ?"  If  the  majority  should  not  rule, 
who  would  be  the  judge?  Where  is  such  a  judge  to  be  found ? 
We  should  all  be  bound  by  the  majority  of  the  American 
people;  if  not,  then  the  minority  must  control.  Would  that  be 
right?  Would  it  be  just  or  generous?  Assuredly  not.  I  re- 
iterate that  the  majority  should  rule.  If  I  adopt  a  wrong 
policy,  the  opportunity  for  condemnation  will  occur  in  four 
years'  time.  Then  I  can  be  turned  out,  and  a  better  man  with 
better  views  put  in  my  place. 

15th.     At  Pittsburgh. 

Notwithstanding  the  troubles  across  the  (Monongahela) 
river,  there  is  really  no  crisis  springing  from  any  thing  in  the 
Government  itself.  In  plain  words,  there  is  really  no  crisis, 
except  an  artificial  one.  What  is  there  now  to  warrant  the 
condition  of  affairs  presented  by  our  friends  "over  the  river"? 
Take  even  their  own  view  of  the  questions  involved,  and  there 
is  nothing  to  justify  the  course  they  are  pursuing.  /  repeat  it, 
then,  there  is  no  crisis,  except  such  a  one  as  may  be  gotten  up 
at  any  time  by  turbulent  men,  aided  by  designing  politicians. 
My  advice,  then,  under  such  circumstances  is  to  keep  cool. 


224  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

At  Cleveland. 

Frequent  allusion  is  made  to  the  excitement  at  present  ex- 
isting in  our  national  politics,  and  it  is  as  well  that  I  should 
also  allude  to  it  here.  I  think  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  any 
excitement.  I  think  the  crisis,  as  it  is  called,  is  altogether  an 
artificial  one.  In  all  parts  of  the  nation  there  are  differences 
of  opinion,  even  here.  You  did  not  all  vote  for  the  person  who 
now  addresses  you,  although  quite  enough  of  you  did  for  all 
practical  purposes,  to  be  sure. 

18th.    At  Syracuse. 

I  see  you  have  erected  a  very  fine  and  handsome  platform 
here  for  me,  and  I  presume  you  expected  me  to  speak  from  it. 
If  I  should  go  upon  it,  you  would  imagine  that  I  was  about  to 
deliver  you  a  much  longer  speech  than  I  am.  I  wish  you  to 
understand  that  I  mean  no  discourtesy  to  you  by  thus  declin- 
ing. I  intend  discourtesy  to  no  one.  But  I  wish  you  to  un- 
derstand that  though  I  am  unwilling  to  go  upon  this  plat- 
form, you  are  not  at  liberty  to  draw  any  inferences  concerning 
any  other  platform  with  which  my  name  has  been  or  is  con- 
nected. I  wish  you  long  life  and  prosperity  individually,  and 
pray  that  with  the  perpetuity  of  those  institutions  under  which 
we  have  all  so  long  lived  and  prospered,  our  happiness  may  be 
secured,  our  future  made  brilliant,  and  the  glorious  destiny  of 
our  country  established  forever. 

At  Utica. 

I  have  no  speech  to  make  to  you,  and  no  time  to  speak  in. 
I  appear  before  you  that  I  may  see  you,  and  that  you  may  see 
me;  and  I  am  willing  to  admit,  that  so  far  as  the  ladies  are 
concerned,  I  have  the  best  of  the  bargain,  though  I  wish  it  to 
be  understood  that  I  do  not  make  the  same  acknowledgment 
concerning  the  men. 

ipth.    At  New  York  City. 

I  am  rather  an  old  man  to  avail  myself  of  such  an  excuse 
as  I  am  now  about  to  do.     Yet  the  truth  is  so  distinct,  and 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  225 

presses  itself  so  distinctly  upon  me,  that  I  can  not  well  avoid 
it — and  that  is,  that  I  did  not  understand  when  I  was  brought 
into  this  room  that  I  was  to  be  brought  here  to  make  a  speech. 
It  was  not  intimated  to  me  that  I  was  brought  into  the  room 
where  Daniel  Webster  and  Henry  Clay  had  made  speeches,  and 
where  one  in  my  position  might  be  expected  to  do  something 
like  those  men,  or  say  something  worthy  of  myself  or  my  audi- 
ence. I,  therefore,  beg  you  to  make  allowance  for  the  circum- 
stances in  which  I  have  been  by  surprise  brought  before  you. 
I  do  suppose  that,  while  the  political  drama  being  enacted 
in  this  country,  at  this  time,  is  rapidly  shifting  its  scenes — for- 
bidding an  anticipation  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  to-day,  of 
what  we  shall  see  to-morrow — it  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  I 
should  see  it  all,  up  to  the  last  minute,  before  I  should  take 
ground  that  I  might  be  disposed  (by  the  shifting  of  the  scenes 
afterward)  also  to  shift.  I  have  said  several  times  upon  this 
journey,  and  I  now  repeat  it  to  you,  that  when  the  time  does 
come,  I  shall  then  take  the  ground  that  I  think  is  right — right 
for  the  North,  for  the  South,  for  the  East,  for  the  West,  for 
the  whole  country.  And  in  doing  so,  I  hope  to  feel  no  necessity 
pressing  upon  me  to  say  anything  in  conflict  with  the  Constitu- 
tion; in  conflict  with  the  continued  union  of  these  States — in 
conflict  with  the  perpetuation  of  the  liberties  of  this  people — or 
anything  in  conflict  with  anything  whatever  that  I  have  ever 
given  you  reason  to  expect  from  me.  And  now,  my  friends, 
have  I  said  enough?  (Cries  of  no,  no!)  Now,  my  friends, 
there  appears  to  be  a  difference  of  opinion  between  you  and 
me,  and  I  really  feel  called  upon  to  decide  the  question  myself. 

2 1  st.  At  Philadelphia.  Allan  Pinkerton  brings  in  a  report 
that  there  is  a  plan  to  murder  Lincoln  on  his  way  to  Washing- 
ton,  on  the  night  of  the  twenty-second-twenty-third.  Seward 
sends  word  that  he  has  heard  the  same  report.  Both  Pinkerton 
and  Frederick  Seward  confer  with  Lincoln, 


226  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

Pinkerton  informed  me  that  a  plan  had  been  laid  for  my 
assassination,  the  exact  time  when  I  expected  to  go  through 
Baltimore  being  publicly  known.  He  was  well  informed  as  to 
the  plan,  but  did  not  know  that  the  conspirators  would  have 
pluck  enough  to  execute  it.  He  urged  me  to  go  right  through 
with  him  to  Washington  that  night.  I  did  not  like  that.  I  had 
made  engagements  to  visit  Harrisburg,  and  go  from  there  to 
Baltimore,  and  I  resolved  to  do  so.  I  could  not  believe  that 
there  was  a  plot  to  murder  me.  I  made  arrangements,  how- 
ever, with  Mr.  Judd  for  my  return  to  Philadelphia  the  next 
night,  if  I  should  be  convinced  that  there  was  danger  in  going 
through  Baltimore.  I  told  him  that  if  I  should  meet  at  Harris- 
burg, as  I  had  at  other  places,  a  delegation  to  go  with  me  to  the 
next  place  (then  Baltimore),  I  should  feel  safe,  and  go  on. 

(Frederick  Seward  urges  more  consideration  of  the  report.) 

Do  you  know  anything  about  the  way  this  information 
was  obtained? 

Did  you  hear  any  names  mentioned?  Did  you,  for  in- 
stance, ever  hear  anything  said  about  such  a  name  as 
Pinkerton  ? 

(Mr.  Seward  has  no  knowledge  hitherto  of  Pinkerton's 
connection  with  the  matter.) 

Only  to-day,  since  our  arrival  at  this  house,  he  brought 
this  story,  or  something  similar  to  it,  about  an  attempt  on  my 
life  in  the  confusion  and  hurly-burly  of  the  reception  at 
Baltimore. 

That  is  why  I  was  asking  you  about  names.  If  different 
persons,  not  knowing  of  each  other's  work,  have  been  pursuing 
separate  clews  that  led  to  the  same  result,  why,  then,  it  shows 
there  must  be  something  in  it.  But  if  this  is  only  the  same 
story,  filtered  through  two  channels,  and  reaching  me  in  two 
ways,  then  that  don't  make  it  any  stronger.    Don't  you  see? 

Well,  we  haven't  got  to  decide  it  to-night,  anyway,  and  I 
see  it  is  getting  late.    You  need  not  think  I  will  not  consider  it 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  227 

well.  I  shall  think  it  over  carefully,  and  try  to  decide  it  right ; 
and  I  will  let  you  know  in  the  morning. 

22nd.  (Address  in  Independence  Hall.)  I  have  often 
inquired  of  myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that 
kept  this  Confederacy  so  long  together.  It  was  not  the 
mere  matter  of  separation  of  the  Colonies  from  the  mother 
land,  but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
which  gave  liberty  not  alone  to  the  people  of  this  country,  but 
hope  to  all  the  world,  for  all  future  time.  It  was  that  which 
gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the  weights  would  be  lifted  from 
the  shoulders  of  all  men,  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal 
chance.  This  is  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this  country  be  saved 
on  that  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will  consider  myself  one  of  the 
happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it.  If  it  can  not 
be  saved  upon  that  principle,  it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this 
country  can  not  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I 
was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this  spot 
than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of  the  present  aspect  of 
affairs,  there  is  no  need  of  bloodshed  and  war.  There  is  no 
necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  such  a  course,  and  I  may 
say  in  advance  that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed,  unless  it  is 
forced  upon  the  Government,  and  then  it  will  be  compelled  to 
act  in  self-defense. 

At  Harrisburg. 

I  recur  for  a  moment  but  to  repeat  some  words  uttered  at 
the  hotel,  in  regard  to  what  has  been  said  about  the  military 
support  which  the  General  Government  may  expect  from  the 
commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  in  a  proper  emergency.  To 
guard  against  any  possible  mistake  do  I  recur  to  this.  It  is 
not  with  any  pleasure  that  I  contemplate  the  possibility  that  a 
necessity  may  arise  in  this  country  for  the  use  of  the  military 
arm.  While  I  am  exceedingly  gratified  to  see  the  manifes- 
tation upon  your  streets  of  your  military  force  here,  and  ex- 


228  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

ceedingly  gratified  at  your  promise  to  use  that  force  upon  a 
proper  emergency — while  I  make  these  acknowledgments  I  de- 
sire to  repeat,  in  order  to  preclude  any  possible  misconstruc- 
tion, that  I  do  most  sincerely  hope  that  we  shall  have  no  use 
for  them :  That  it  will  never  become  their  duty  to  shed  blood, 
and  most  especially  never  to  shed  fraternal  blood.  I  promise 
that,  so  far  as  I  may  have  wisdom  to  direct,  if  so  painful  a  re- 
sult shall  in  any  wise  be  brought  about,  it  shall  be  through  no 
fault  of  mine. 

2 2nd- 2 3rd.  Because  of  the  anxiety  of  his  friends  over  the 
supposed  discoveries  of  Pinkerton,  Lincoln  makes  the  journey 
from  Harrisburg  to  Washington  in  secret.  No  further  evi- 
dence of  a  conspiracy  is  discovered. 

23rd.     Lincoln  breakfasts  in  Washington. 
Texas  secedes;  immediately  joins  the  Confederacy. 

27th.  (Reply  to  the  Mayor  of  Washington.)  I  thank  you, 
and  through  you  the  municipal  authorities  of  this  city  who  ac- 
company you,  for  this  welcome.  As  it  is  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  since  the  present  phase  of  politics  has  presented  itself  in 
this  country,  that  I  have  said  anything  publicly  within  a  region 
of  country  where  the  institution  of  slavery  exists,  I  will  take 
this  occasion  to  say  that  I  think  very  much  of  the  ill-feeling 
that  has  existed  and  still  exists  between  the  people  in  the  section 
from  which  I  came  and  the  people  here,  is  dependent  upon  a 
misunderstanding  of  one  another.  I  therefore  avail  myself  of 
this  opportunity  to  assure  you,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  all  the  gentle- 
men present,  that  I  have  not  now,  and  never  have  had,  any 
other  than  as  kindly  feelings  toward  you  as  to  the  people  of 
my  own  section.  I  have  not  now,  and  never  have  had,  any 
disposition  to  treat  you  in  any  respect  otherwise  than  as  my 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  229 

own  neighbors.  I  have  not  now  any  purpose  to  withhold  from 
you  any  of  the  benefits  of  the  Constitution,  under  any  circum- 
stances, that  I  would  not  feel  myself  constrained  to  withhold 
from  my  own  neighbors ;  and  I  hope,  in  a  word,  that  when  we 
shall  become  better  acquainted,  and  I  say  it  with  great  confi- 
dence, we  shall  like  each  other  the  more.  I  thank  you  for  the 
kindness  of  this  reception. 

The  last  few  days  before  the  inauguration  are  filled  by  final 
negotiations  over  Cabinet  positions — including  the  restoration 
of  Cameron  as  Secretary  of  War — and  the  last  revision  of 
the  inaugural  address.  It  is  criticized  in  detail  by  Seward  who 
suggests  many  changes  some  of  which  Lincoln  accepts. 

March  4th.  (Inaugural  Address.)  I  take  the  of ficial  oath 
to-day  with  no  mental  reservations,  and  with  no  purpose  to 
construe  the  Constitution  or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules. 

I  hold,  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and  of  the 
Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual.  Perpetu- 
ity is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  fundamental  law  of  all 
national  governments.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no  government 
proper  ever  had  a  provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own 
termination. 

I  therefore  consider,  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken;  and  to  the  extent  of  my 
ability  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly 
enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union  be  faithfully  exe- 
cuted in  all  the  States.  Doing  this,  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple 
duty  on  my  part,  and  I  shall  perform  it  so  far  as  practicable, 
unless  my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  with- 
hold the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  authoritative  manner  direct 
the  contrary. 

I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only  as 
the  declared  purpose  of  the  Union  that  it  will  constitutionally 
defend  and  maintain  itself. 


230  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or  violence; 
and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced  upon  the  national 
authority.  The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold, 
occupy,  and  possess  the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the 
government,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts ;  but  beyond 
what  may  be  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  inva- 
sion, no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  anywhere. 

Where  hostility  to  the  United  States,  in  any  interior  local- 
ity, shall  be  so  great  and  universal  as  to  prevent  competent 
resident  citizens  from  holding  the  Federal  offices,  there  will 
be  no  attempt  to  force  obnoxious  strangers  among  the  people 
for  that  object.  While  the  strict  legal  right  may  exist  in  the 
government  to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices,  the  at- 
tempt to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly  impractica- 
ble withal,  that  I  deem  it  better  to  forego  for  the  time  the  uses 
of  such  offices. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right,  and 
ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is  wrong,  and 
ought  not  to  be  extended;  and  this  is  the  only  substantial  dis- 
pute; and  the  fugitive-slave  clause  of  the  Constitution,  and  the 
law  for  the  suppression  of  the  foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as 
well  enforced,  perhaps,  as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community 
where  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the 
law  itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each.  This,  I 
think,  can  not  be  perfectly  cured;  and  it  would  be  worse  in  both 
cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sections  than  before.  The 
foreign  slave-trade,  now  imperfectly  suppressed,  would  be 
ultimately  revived,  without  restriction,  in  one  section,  while 
fugitive  slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be 
surrendered  at  all  by  the  other. 

I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
(which  amendment,  however,  I  have  not  seen)  has  passed  Con- 
gress, to  the  effect  that  the  Federal  Government  shall  never 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  231 

interfere  with  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  States,  including 
that  of  persons  held  to  service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of 
what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to  speak  of 
particular  amendments  so  far  as  to  say  that,  holding  such  a 
provision  to  now  be  implied  constitutional  law,  I  have  no  ob- 
jection to  its  being  made  express  and  irrevocable.  Why  should 
there  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice  of  the 
people?  Is  there  any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the  world?  In 
our  present  differences  is  either  party  without  faith  of  being 
in  the  right?  If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his 
eternal  truth  and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on 
yours  of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely  pre- 
vail by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the  American 
people. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not 
in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  Government 
will  not  assail  you. 

You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  ag- 
gressors. You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy 
the  Government ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to 
"preserve,  protect,  and  defend"  it. 

I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We 
must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it 
must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 

The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  bat- 
tle-field and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone 
all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union 
when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels 
of  our  nature.* 

(To  William  H.  Seward.)     Your  note  of  the  2nd  instant, 


*Nicolay  and  Hay  show  in  detail  the  changes  in  Lincoln's  original  man- 
uscript that  were  due  to  Seward.  The  Inaugural  marks  the  opening  of  a 
new  epoch  in  Lincoln  as  a  writer.  Qualities  of  richness  and  distinction, 
unknown  to  his  former  writings,  appear  now  and  grow  steadily  more  con- 
spicuous. 


232  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

asking  to  withdraw  your  acceptance  of  my  invitation  to  take 
charge  of  the  State  Department,  was  duly  received.  It  is  the 
subject  of  the  most  painful  solicitude  with  me,  and  I  feel  con- 
strained to  beg  that  you  will  countermand  the  withdrawal. 
The  public  interest,  I  think,  demands  that  you  should ;  and  my 
personal  feelings  are  deeply  enlisted  in  the  same  direction. 
Please  consider  and  answer  by  9  a.  m.  to-morrow. 

Seward  decides  to  serve  as  Secretary  of  State. 

$th.     (To  the  Pennsylvania  Delegation,  Washington.) 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  hope  that  you  entertain 
that  you  have  a  President  and  a  government.  In  respect  to 
that  I  wish  to  say  to  you  that  in  the  position  I  have  assumed  I 
wish  to  do  more  than  I  have  ever  given  reason  to  believe  I 
would  do.  I  do  not  wish  you  to  believe  that  I  assume  to  be 
any  better  than  others  who  have  gone  before  me.  I  prefer 
rather  to  have  it  understood  that  if  we  ever  have  a  government 
on  the  principles  we  profess,  we  should  remember,  while  we 
exercise  our  opinion,  that  others  have  also  rights  to  the 
exercise  of  their  opinions,  and  that  we  should  endeavor  to  allow 
these  rights,  and  act  in  such  a  manner  as  to  create  no  bad 
feeling.  I  hope  we  have  a  government  and  a  President.  I 
hope,  and  wish  it  to  be  understood,  that  there  may  be  no  allu- 
sion to  unpleasant  differences. 

We  must  remember  that  the  people  of  all  the  States  are 
entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  citizens  of 
the  several  States.  We  should  bear  this  in  mind,  and  act  in 
such  a  way  as  to  say  nothing  insulting  or  irritating.  I  would 
inculcate  this  idea,  so  that  we  may  not,  like  the  Pharisees,  set 
ourselves  up  to  be  better  than  other  people. 

pth.  (To  General  Scott.)  On  the  5th  instant  I  received 
from  the  Honorable  Joseph  Holt,  the  then  faithful  and  vigilant 
Secretary  of  War,  a  letter  of  that  date,  inclosing  a  letter  and 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  233 

accompanying  documents  received  by  him  on  the  4th  instant 
from  Major  Robert  Anderson,  commanding  Fort  Sumter, 
South  Carolina;  and  copies  of  all  which  I  now  transmit.  Im- 
mediately on  receipt  of  them  by  me,  I  transmitted  the  whole 
to  you  for  your  consideration,  and  the  same  day  you  returned 
the  package  to  me  with  your  opinion  indorsed  upon  it,  a  copy 
of  which  opinion  I  now  also  transmit  to  you.  Learning  from 
you  verbally  that  since  then  you  have  given  the  subject  a  more 
full  and  thorough  consideration,  you  will  much  oblige  me  by 
giving  answers,  in  writing,  to  the  following  interrogatories: 

(1).  To  what  point  of  time  can  Major  Anderson  main- 
tain his  position  at  Fort  Sumter,  without  fresh  supplies  or 
reinforcement? 

(2).  Can  you,  with  all  the  means  now  in  your  control, 
supply  or  reinforce  Fort  Sumter  within  that  time? 

(3).  If  not,  what  amount  of  means,  and  of  what  descrip- 
tion, in  addition  to  that  already  at  yowr  control,  would  enable 
you  to  supply  and  reinforce  that  fortress  within  the  time? 

Please  answer  these,  adding  such  statements,  information, 
and  counsel  as  your  great  skill  and  experience  may  suggest. 

Scott  advises  the  withdrawal  of  the  Sumter  garrison  on  the 
ground  that  he  lacks  the  military  force  necessary  to  relieve  it. 

The  question  of  holding  Fort  Pickens  on  the  Florida  coast 
is  also  under  discussion.  The  steamship  Brooklyn,  lying  off 
Fort  Pickens  has  on  board  a  detachment  of  Federal  troops. 
The  President  despatches  orders  to  the  Brooklyn  to  place  these 
troops  in  the  fort. 

15th.     (Note  asking  Cabinet  opinions  on  Fort  Sumter.) 
Assuming  it  to  be  possible  to  now  provision  Fort  Sumter, 
under  all  the  circumstances  is  it  wise  to  attempt  it?     Please 
give  me  your  opinion  in  writing  on  this  question. 

Cabinet    divides    on    the    subject    of    relieving    Sumter. 


234  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

Seward  heads  the  majority,  advising  the  surrender  of  Sum- 
ter to  the  Confederates.  Seward  thinks  the  war  scare  will 
blow  over  if  there  is  no  bloodshed.  The  others  think  the  North 
is  not  ready  to  fight.    No  action  is  taken. 

The  President  is  largely  engrossed  in  making  appointments 
to  office. 

1 8th.  (To  Secretary  Seward.)  I  believe  it  is  a  necessity 
with  us  to  make  the  appointments  I  mentioned  last  night — that 
is,  Charles  F.  Adams  to  England,  William  L.  Dayton  to 
France,  George  P.  Marsh  to  Sardinia,  and  Anson  Burlingame 
to  Austria.  These  gentlemen  all  have  my  highest  esteem ;  but 
no  one  of  them  is  originally  suggested  by  me,  except  Mr. 
Dayton.  Mr.  Adams  I  take,  because  you  suggested  him,  cou- 
pled with  his  eminent  fitness  for  the  place.  Mr.  Marsh  and 
Mr.  Burlingame  I  take  because  of  the  intense  pressure  of  their 
respective  States,  and  their  fitness  also. 

(To  Attorney-General  Bates.)  I  shall  be  obliged  if  you 
will  give  me  your  opinion  in  writing  whether,  under  the  Con- 
stitution and  existing  laws,  the  executive  has  power  to  collect 
duties  on  shipboard  off  shore  in  cases  where  their  collection 
in  the  ordinary  way  is  by  any  cause  rendered  impracticable. 
This  would  include  the  question  of  lawful  power  to  prevent 
the  landing  of  dutiable  goods  unless  the  duties  were  paid. 

26th.  (To  the  Senate.)  I  have  received  a  copy  of  the 
resolution  of  the  Senate,  passed  on  the  25th  instant,  requesting 
me,  if  in  my  opinion  not  incompatible  with  the  public  interest, 
to  communicate  to  the  Senate  the  despatches  of  Major  Robert 
Anderson  to  the  War  Department  during  the  time  he  has  been 
in  command  of  Fort  Sumter.  On  examination  of  the  corre- 
spondence thus  called  for,  I  have,  with  the  highest  respect  for 
the  Senate,  come  to  the  conclusion  that  at  the  present  moment 
the  publication  of  it  would  be  inexpedient. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  235 

29th.  President  again  consults  the  Cabinet  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  evacuating  Sumter.  The  majority  is  now  in  favor  of 
holding  Sumter  and  accepting  war  if  that  is  necessary.  They 
have  had  their  ears  to  the  ground  and  now  think  that  the  North 
is  in  a  mood  to  fight.    Seward  still  favors  evacuation. 

(To  the  Secretary  of  War.)  I  desire  that  an  expedition, 
to  move  by  sea,  be  got  ready  to  sail  as  early  as  the  6th  of  April 
next,  the  whole  according  to  memorandum  attached,  and  that 
you  co-operate  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  that  object. 

30th.  (To  John  T.  Stuart.)  Cousin  Lizzie  shows  me 
your  letter  of  the  27th.  The  question  of  giving  her  the  Spring- 
field Post-office  troubles  me.  You  see  I  have  already  ap- 
pointed William  Jayne  a  territorial  governor  and  Judge  Trum- 
bull's brother  to  a  landoffice.  Will  it  do  for  me  to  go  on 
and  justify  the  declaration  that  Trumbull  and  I  have  divided 
out  all  the  offices  among  our  relatives?  Doctor  Wallace,  you 
know,  is  needy,  and  looks  to  me;  and  I  personally  owe  him 
much. 

I  see  by  the  papers,  a  vote  is  to  be  taken  as  to  the  Post- 
office.  Could  you  not  set  up  Lizzie  and  beat  them  all?  She, 
being  here,  need  know  nothing  of  it,  so  therefore  there  would 
be  no  indelicacy  on  her  part. 

April  1st:  Seward  submits  to  the  President  a  scheme  of 
policy  which  in  his  judgment  will  unite  North  and  South  and 
avoid  domestic  war.  He  proposes  to  surrender  Fort  Sumter 
but  hold  Fort  Pickens;  to  pick  quarrels  with  Spain  and  France 
and  if  possible  provoke  a  foreign  war. 

(To  Secretary  Seward.)  Since  parting  with  you  I  have 
been  considering  your  paper  dated  this  day,  and  entitled  "Some 
Thoughts  for  the  President's  Consideration.,,    The  first  prop- 


236  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

osition  in  it  is,  "First,  We  are  at  the  end  of  a  month's  admin- 
istration, and  yet  without  a  policy  either  domestic  or  foreign." 

At  the  beginning  of  that  month,  in  the  Inaugural,  I  said : 
'The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and 
possess  the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the  government, 
and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts."  This  had  your  distinct 
approval  at  the  time;  and,  taken  in  connection  with  the  order 
I  immediately  gave  General  Scott,  directing  him  to  employ 
every  means  in  his  power  to  strengthen  and  hold  the  forts, 
comprises  the  exact  domestic  policy  you  now  urge,  with  the 
single  exception  that  it  does  not  propose  to  abandon  Fort 
Sumter. 

Again,  I  do  not  perceive  how  the  reinforcement  of  Fort 
Sumter  would  be  done  on  a  slavery  or  a  party  issue,  while 
that  of  Fort  Pickens  would  be  on  a  more  national  and  patriotic 
one. 

The  news  received  yesterday  in  regard  to  St.  Domingo 
certainly  brings  a  new  item  within  the  range  of  our  foreign 
policy;  but  up  to  that  time  we  have  been  preparing  circulars 
and  instructions  to  ministers  and  the  like,  all  in  perfect  har- 
mony, without  even  a  suggestion  that  we  had  no  foreign  policy. 

Upon  your  closing  propositions — that  "whatever  policy  we 
adopt,  there  must  be  an  energetic  prosecution  of  it. 

"For  this  purpose  it  must  be  somebody's  business  to  pursue 
and  direct  it  incessantly. 

"Either  the  President  must  do  it  himself,  and  be  all  the 
while  active  in  it,  or 

"Devolve  it  on  some  member  of  his  Cabinet.  Once 
adopted,  debates  on  it  must  end,  and  all  agree  and  abide."  I 
remark  that  if  this  must  be  done,  I  must  do  it.  When  a  gen- 
eral line  of  policy  is  adopted,  I  apprehend  there  is  no  danger  of 
its  being  changed  without  good  reason,  or  continuing  to  be 
a  subject  of  unnecessary  debate;  still,  upon  points  arising  in 
its  progress  I  wish,  and  suppose  I  am  entitled  to  have,  the 
advice  of  all  the  Cabinet. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  237 

(To  Lieutenant  D.  D.  Porter.)  You  will  proceed  to  New 
York,  and  with  the  least  possible  delay  assuming  command  of 
any  naval  steamer  available,  proceed  to  Pensacola  Harbor,  and 
at  any  cost  or  risk  prevent  any  expedition  from  the  mainland 
reaching  Fort  Pickens  or  Santa  Rosa  Island. 

You  will  exhibit  this  order  to  any  naval  officer  at  Pen- 
sacola, if  you  deem  it  necessary  after  you  have  established 
yourself  within  the  harbor,  and  will  request  co-operation  by  the 
entrance  of  at  least  one  other  steamer. 

This  order,  its  object,  and  your  destination  will  be  com- 
municated to  no  person  whatever  until  you  reach  the  harbor 
of  Pensacola. 

(To  Commandant  Andrew  H.  Foote.)  Fit  out  the  Pow- 
hatan to  go  to  sea  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  under  sealed 
orders.  Orders  by  a  confidential  messenger  go  forward  to- 
morrow.* 

(To  General  Scott.)  Would  it  impose  too  much  labor  on 
General  Scott  to  make  short  comprehensive  daily  reports  to  me 
of  what  occurs  in  his  department,  including  movements  by  him- 
self, and  under  his  orders,  and  the  receipt  of  intelligence?  If 
not,  I  will  thank  him  to  do  so. 

April  4th.  On  the  5th  of  March  (the  present  incumbent's 
first  full  day  in  office),  a  letter  of  Major  Anderson  command- 
ing at  Fort  Sumter,  written  on  the  28th  of  February  and  re- 
ceived at  the  War  Department  on  the  4th  of  March,  was,  by 
that  department  placed  in  his  hands.  This  letter  expressed  the 
professional  opinion  of  the  writer  that  reinforcements  could 
not  be  thrown  into  that  fort,  within  the  time  of  his  relief,  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  limited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with 
a  view  of  holding  possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force  of  less 
than  20,000  good  and  well-disciplined  men.  This  opinion  was 
concurred  in  by  all  the  officers  of  the  command,  and  their 


*For  the  purpose  of  relieving  Fort  Sumter.     See  p.  240. 


2?$  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

memoranda  on  the  subject  were  made  inclosures  of  Major 
Anderson's  letter.  The  whole  was  immediately  laid  before 
Lieutenant-General  Scott,  who  at  once  concurred  with  Major 
Anderson  in  opinion.  On  reflection,  however,  he  took  full 
time,  consulting  with  other  officers,  both  of  the  army  and  the 
navy,  and  at  the  end  of  four  days  came  reluctantly  but  decidedly 
to  the  same  conclusion  as  before.  He  also  stated  at  the  same 
time  that  no  such  sufficient  force  was  then  at  the  control  of 
the  government,  or  could  be  raised  and  brought  to  the  ground 
within  the  time  when  the  provisions  in  the  fort  would  be 
exhausted.  In  a  purely  military  point  of  view,  this  reduced 
the  duty  of  the  administration  in  the  case  to  the  mere  matter 
of  getting  the  garrison  safely  out  of  the  fort. 

It  was  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that  position, 
under  the  circumstances,  would  be  utterly  ruinous;  that  the 
necessity  under  which  it  was  to  be  done  would  not  be  fully 
understood ;  that  by  many  it  would  be  construed  as  a  part  of  a 
voluntary  policy ;  that  at  home  it  would  discourage  the  friends 
of  the  Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far  to  insure 
to  the  latter  a  recognition  abroad;  that,  in  fact,  it  would  be 
our  national  destruction  consummated.  This  could  not  be 
allowed.  Starvation  was  not  yet  upon  the  garrison,  and  ere 
it  would  be  reached  Fort  Pickens  might  be  reinforced.  This 
last  would  be  clear  indication  of  policy,  and  would  better  en- 
able the  country  to  accept  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter  as  a 
military  necessity.  An  order  was  at  once  directed  to  be  sent 
for  the  landing  of  the  troops  from  the  steamship  Brooklyn 
into  Fort  Pickens.  This  order  could  not  go  by  land,  but  must 
take  the  longer  and  slower  route  by  sea. 

The  first  return  news  from  the  order  was  received  just  one 
week  before  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  news  itself  was  that 
the  officer  commanding  the  Sabine,  to  which  vessel  the  troops 
had  been  transferred  from  the  Brooklyn,  acting  upon  some 
quasi  armistice  of  the  late  Administration  (and  of  the  existence 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  239 

of  which  the  present  Administration,*  up  to  the  time  the  order 
was  dispatched,  had  only  too  vague  and  uncertain  rumors  to 
fix  attention),  had  refused  to  land  the  troops.  To  now  re- 
inforce Fort  Pickens  before  a  crisis  would  be  reached  at  Fort 
Sumter  was  impossible — rendered  so  by  the  near  exhaustion 
of  provisions  in  the  latter-named  fort.  In  precaution  against 
such  a  conjuncture,  the  government  had,  a  few  days  before, 
commenced  preparing  an  expedition  as  well  adapted  as  might 
be  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter,  which  expedition  was  intended  to 
be  ultimately  used,  or  not,  according  to  circumstances.  The 
strongest  anticipated  case  for  using  it  was  now  presented,  and 
it  was  resolved  to  send  it  forward.  As  had  been  intended  in 
this  contingency,  it  was  also  resolved  to  notify  the  Governor 
of  South  Carolina  that  he  might  expect  an  attempt  would  be 
made  to  provision  the  fort;  and  that,  if  the  attempt  should  not 
be  resisted,  there  would  be  no  effort  to  throw  in  men,  arms, 
or  ammunition,  without  further  notice,  or  in  case  of  an  attack 
upon  the  fort. 

(To  Major  Robert  Anderson.)  Your  letter  of  the  1st 
instant  occasions  some  anxiety  to  the  President. 

On  the  information  of  Captain  Fox,  he  had  supposed  you 
could  hold  out  till  the  15th  instant  without  any  great  incon- 
venience, and  had  prepared  an  expedition  to  relieve  you  before 
that  period. 

Hoping  still  that  you  will  be  able  to  sustain  yourself  till 
the  nth  or  12th  instant,  the  expedition  will  go  forward,  and, 
finding  your  flag  flying,  will  attempt  to  provision  you,  and 
in  case  the  effort  is  resisted,  will  endeavor  also  to  reinforce 
you. 

You  will  therefore  hold  out,  if  possible,  till  the  arrival  of 
the  expedition. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  intention  of  the  President  to  subject 
your  command  to  any  danger  or  hardship  beyond  what,  in 


*A  promise  made  by  President  Buchanan  to  Senator  Mallory  of  Florida. 


24o  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

your  judgment,  would  be  usual  in  military  life:  and  he  has 
entire  confidence  that  you  will  act  as  becomes  a  patriot  and 
a  soldier  under  all  circumstances. 

Whenever,  if  at  all,  in  your  judgment,  to  save  yourself 
and  command,  a  capitulation  becomes  a  necessity,  you  are 
authorized  to  make  it. 

6th.  (To  R.  S.  Chew.)  You  will  proceed  directly  to 
Charleston,  South  Carolina;  and  if,  on  your  arrival  there,  the 
flag  of  the  United  States  shall  be  flying  over  Fort  Sumter, 
and  the  fort  shall  not  have  been  attacked,  you  will  procure  an 
interview  with  Governor  Pickens,  and  read  to  him  as  follows : 
"I  am  directed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  notify 
you  to  expect  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  supply  Fort  Sumter 
with  provisions  only;  and  that,  if  such  attempt  be  not  resisted, 
no  effort  to  throw  in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition  will  be  made 
without  further  notice,  or  in  case  of  an  attack  upon  the  fort." 

After  you  shall  have  read  this  to  Governor  Pickens,  deliver 
to  him  the  copy  of  it  herein  enclosed,  and  retain  this  letter 
yourself. 

But  if,  on  your  arrival  at  Charleston,  you  shall  ascertain 
that  Fort  Sumter  shall  have  been  already  evacuated,  or  sur- 
rendered by  the  United  States  force,  or  shall  have  been 
attacked  by  an  opposing  force,  you  will  seek  no  interview 
with  Governor  Pickens,  but  return  here  forthwith. 

nth.  (To  Postmaster-General  Blair.)  Has  a  Postmas- 
ter been  appointed,  as  yet,  at  Covington,  Kentucky?  Colonel 
Carpenter  wishes  John  S.  Scott  to  be  appointed.  He  says  Scott 
is  a  Douglas  Union  man.  I  know  nothing  as  to  the  propriety 
of  this;  but  write  to  keep  a  promise. 

(To  Secretary  Chase.)  W.  W.  Danenhower  is  the  only 
marked  representative  of  the  American  organization  in  Illi- 
nois, who  cooperated  with  us  in  1858  and  i860,  and  who  is 
now  asking  anything  here.  He  was  very  serviceable  to  us 
then,  and  is  very  needy  now. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  241 

Can  anything  be  found  for  him — permanent  or  temporary  ? 

Please  try. 

1 2th.  (To  Attorney-General  Bates.)  On  examination  of 
papers,  and  full  consideration,  I  have  concluded  to  appoint  Earl 
Bile,  Marshal  for  the  Northern  District  of  Ohio. 

Please  send  me  the  commission. 

Surrender  of  Sumter  demanded  by  the  Confederate  author- 
ities and  refused.  Bombardment  of  Sumter  begins.  The  fleet 
intended  to  relieve  Sumter  does  not  arrive  in  time  to  prevent 
the  capture  of  the  fort. 

13th.  (To  a  Committee  from  the  Virginia  Convention.) 
If,  as  now  appears  to  be  true,  in  pursuit  of  a  purpose  to 
drive  the  United  States  authority  from  these  places,  an  un- 
provoked assault  has  been  made  upon  Fort  Sumter,  I  shall 
hold  myself  at  liberty  to  repossess,  if  I  can,  like  places 
which  had  been  seized  before  the  Government  was  devolved 
upon  me.  And  in  every  event  I  shall,  to  the  extent  of  my 
ability,  repel  force  by  force.  In  case  it  proves  true  that  Fort 
Sumter  has  been  assaulted,  as  is  reported,  I  shall,  perhaps, 
cause  the  United  States  mails  to  be  withdrawn  from  all  the 
States  which  claim  to  have  seceded,  believing  that  the  com- 
mencement of  actual  war  against  the  Government,  justifies 
and  possibly  demands  this.  I  scarcely  need  to  say  that  I  con- 
sider the  military  posts  and  property  situated  within  the  States 
which  claim  to  have  seceded  as  yet  belonging  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  as  much  as  they  did  before  the  sup- 
posed secession.  Whatever  else  I  may  do  for  the  purpose,  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts  by  any  armed 
invasion  of  any  part  of  the  country;  not  meaning  by  this,  how- 
ever, that  I  may  not  land  a  force  deemed  necessary  to  relieve  a 
fort  upon  a  border  of  the  country. 


242  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

14th.  Stunt er  surrendered  to  the  Confederate  authorities. 
Anderson  and  his  garrison  permitted  to  withdraw  by  means 
of  the  belated  fleet. 

13th.  (A  Proclamation.)  Whereas  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  have  been  for  some  time  past  and  now  are  opposed,  and 
the  execution  thereof  obstructed  in  the  States  of  South  Car- 
olina, Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and 
Texas  by  combinations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the 
ordinary  course  of  judicial  proceedings,  or  by  the  powers 
vested  in  the  marshals  by  law: 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  in  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  laws,  have  thought  fit  to  call  forth,  and 
hereby  do  call  forth,  militia  of  the  several  States  of  the  Union, 
to  the  aggregate  number  of  75,000,  in  order  to  suppress  said 
combinations,  and  to  cause  the  laws  to  be  duly  executed. 

i?th.     Virginia  secedes. 

ipth.  (Proclamation.)  Whereas  an  insurrection  against 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  has  broken  out  in  the 
States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana,  and  Texas,  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  for  the  collection  of  the  revenue  can  not  be  effectually 
executed  therein  conformably  to  that  provision  of  the  Con- 
stitution which  requires  duties  to  be  uniform  throughout  the 
United  States; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  with  a  view  to  the  same  purposes  before  men- 
tioned, and  to  the  protection  of  the  public  peace,  and  the  lives 
and  property  of  quiet  and  orderly  citizens  pursuing  their  law- 
ful occupations,  until  Congress  shall  have  assembled  and  de- 
liberated on  the  said  unlawful  proceedings,  or  until  the  same 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  243 

shall  have  ceased,  have  further  deemed  it  advisable  to  set  on 
foot  a  blockade  of  the  ports  within  the  States  aforesaid,  in 
pursuance  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  law 
of  nations  in  such  case  provided.  For  this  purpose  a  com- 
petent force  will  be  posted  so  as  to  prevent  entrance  and  exit 
of  vessels  from  the  ports  aforesaid.  If,  therefore,  with  a  view 
to  violate  such  blockade,  a  vessel  shall  approach  or  shall  at- 
tempt to  leave  either  of  the  said  ports,  she  will  be  duly  warned 
by  the  commander  of  one  of  the  blockading  vessels,  who  will 
endorse  on  her  register  the  fact  and  date  of  such  warning,  and 
if  the  same  vessel  shall  again  attempt  to  enter  or  leave  the 
blockaded  port,  she  will  be  captured  and  sent  to  the  nearest 
convenient  port,  for  such  proceedings  against  her  and  her 
cargo,  as  prize,  as  may  be  deemed  advisable. 

And  I  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  if  any  person  un- 
der the  pretended  authority  of  the  said  States,  or  under  any 
other  pretense,  shall  molest  a  vessel  of  the  United  States,  or 
the  persons  or  cargo  on  board  of  her,  such  person  will  be  held 
amenable  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States  for  the  prevention 
and  punishment  of  piracy. 

Sixth  Massachusetts  regiment  passing  through  Baltimore 
en  route  to  Washington  is  attacked  by  a  mob. 

20th.  (To  the  Governor  of  Maryland  and  the  Mayor  of 
Baltimore.)  Your  letter  by  Messrs.  Bond,  Dobbin,  and 
Brune  is  received.  I  tender  you  both  my  sincere  thanks  for 
your  efforts  to  keep  the  peace  in  the  trying  situation  in  which 
you  are  placed.  For  the  future  troops  must  be  brought  here, 
but  I  make  no  point  of  bringing  them  through  Baltimore. 

Without  any  military  knowledge  myself,  of  course  I  must 
leave  details  to  General  Scott.  He  hastily  said  this  morning 
in  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen,  "March  them  around  Bal- 
timore, and  not  through  it." 


244  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

I  sincerely  hope  the  General,  on  fuller  reflection,  will  con- 
sider this  practical  and  proper,  and  that  you  will  not  object 
to  it.  By  this  a  collision  of  the  people  of  Baltimore  with  the 
troops  will  be  avoided,  unless  they  go  out  of  their  way  to 
seek  it.  I  hope  you  will  exert  your  influence  to  prevent  this. 
Now  and  ever  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  for  peace  consistently 
with  the  maintenance  of  the  government. 

2 1st.  We  must  have  troops ;  and  as  they  can  neither  crawl 
under  Maryland  nor  fly  over  it,  they  must  come  across  it. 

Railroad  from  Washington  northward  destroyed  by  rioters. 
Telegraph  wires  are  cut.  Washington  completely  isolated 
from  the  North. 

22nd.  The  force  now  sought  to  be  brought  through  Mary- 
land is  intended  for  nothing  but  the  defense  of  the  capital. 
The  President  has  necessarily  confided  the  choice  of  the 
national  highway  which  that  force  shall  take  in  coming  to  this 
city  to  the  lieutenant-general  commanding  the  army  of  the 
United  States,  who,  like  his  only  predecessor,  is  not  less  dis- 
tinguished for  his  humanity  than  for  his  loyalty,  patriotism, 
and  distinguished  public  services. 

23rd.    Why  don't  they  come !    Why  don't  they  come ! 

24th.  (To  wounded  soldiers  while  anxiously  waiting  for 
Northern  troops.)  I  don't  believe  there  is  any  North!  The 
Seventh  Regiment  is  a  myth?  Rhode  Island  is  not  known 
in  our  geography  any  longer.  You  are  the  only  northern 
realities. 

25th.  Arrival  at  Washington  of  the  Seventh  Regiment  of 
New  York.  Resumption  of  connection  between  the  Capital 
and  the  North. 

(To  General  Scott.)  The  Maryland  Legislature  assem- 
bles to-morrow  at  Annapolis,  and  not  improbably  will  take 
action  to  arm  the  people   of   the   State  against  the   United 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  245 

States.  The  question  has  been  submitted  to  and  considered 
by  me,  whether  it  would  not  be  justifiable,  upon  the  ground 
of  necessary  defense,  for  you,  as  General-in-chief  of  the  United 
States  Army,  to  arrest  or  disperse  the  members  of  that  body. 
I  think  it  would  not  be  justifiable  nor  efficient  for  the  desired 
object. 

I  therefore  conclude  that  it  is  only  left  to  the  Commanding 
General  to  watch  and  wait  their  action,  which,  if  it  shall  be 
to  arm  their  people  against  the  United  States,  he  is  to  adopt 
the  most  prompt  and  efficient  means  to  counteract,  even,  if 
necessary,  to  the  bombardment  of  their  cities,  and,  in  the  ex- 
tremest  necessity,  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 

27th.  (To  General  Scott.)  You  are  engaged  in  sup- 
pressing an  insurrection  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States. 
If  at  any  point  on  or  in  the  vicinity  of  any  military  line  which 
is  now  between  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  via  Perrysville,  An- 
napolis City,  and  Annapolis  Junction,  you  find  resistance 
which  renders  it  necessary  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  cor- 
pus for  the  public  safety,  you  personally,  or  through  the  offi- 
cer in  command  at  the  point  at  which  resistance  occurs,  are 
authorized  to  suspend  that  writ. 

May  1st.  (To  Major  Robert  Anderson.)  A  few  days  ago 
I  caused  an  official  letter  to  be  written  to  you,  through  the 
War  Department,  expressive  of  the  approbation  and  gratitude 
I  considered  due  you  and  your  command  from  this  govern- 
ment. 

I  now  write  this  as  a  purely  private  and  social  letter  to  say 
I  shall  be  much  gratified  to  see  you  here  at  your  earliest  con- 
venience, when  and  where  I  can  personally  testify  my  apprecia- 
tion of  your  services  and  fidelity,  and  perhaps  explain  some 
things  on  my  part  which  you  may  not  have  understood. 

I  shall  also  be  very  glad  to  see  any  of  the  officers  who 
served  with  you  at  Fort  Sumter,  and  whom  it  might  be  con- 
venient and  agreeable  for  you  to  invite  to  accompany  you  here. 


246  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

(To  Gustavus  V.  Fox,  who  had  planned  the  relief  of 
Sumter.)  I  sincerely  regret  that  the  failure  of  the  late  attempt 
to  provision  Fort  Sumter  should  be  the  source  of  any  annoy- 
ance to  you.  The  practicability  of  your  plan  was  not,  in  fact, 
brought  to  a  test. 

By  reason  of  a  gale,  well  known  in  advance  to  be  possible 
and  not  improbable,  the  tugs,  an  essential  part  of  the  plan, 
never  reached  the  ground,  while  by  an  accident  for  which  you 
were  in  no  wise  responsible,  and  possibly  I  to  some  extent  was,* 
you  were  deprived  of  a  war  vessel,  with  her  men,  which  you 
deemed  of  great  importance  to  the  enterprise.  I  most  cheer- 
fully and  truly  declare,  that  the  failure  of  the  undertaking  has 
not  lowered  you  a  particle,  while  the  qualities  you  developed  in 
the  effort  have  greatly  heightened  you  in  my  estimation.  For 
a  daring  and  dangerous  enterprise  of  a  similar  character  you 
would  to-day  be  the  man  of  all  my  acquaintances  whom  I 
would  select.  You  and  I  both  anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the 
country  would  be  advanced  by  making  the  attempt  to  pro- 
vision Fort  Sumter,  even  if  it  should  fail;  and  it  is  no  small 
consolation  now  to  feel  that  our  anticipation  is  justified  by 
the  result. 

6th.  (To  Vice-President  Hamlin.)  Please  advise  me  at 
the  close  of  each  day  what  troops  left  during  the  day,  where 
going,  and  by  what  route;  what  remaining  at  New  York,  and 
what  expected  in  the  next  day.  Give  the  numbers,  as  near 
as  convenient,  and  what  corps  they  are.  This  information, 
reaching  us  daily,  will  be  very  useful  as  well  as  satisfactory. 

10th.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  I  have  felt  myself  obliged 
to  refuse  the  post-office  at  this  place  to  my  old  friend  Nathan 
Sargent,  which  wounds  him,  and  consequently  me,  very  deeply. 
He  now  says  there  is  an  office  in  your  department,  called  the 


*The  warship,  Powhatan,  intended  by  Secretary  Welles  for  the  Sum- 
ter was  detached  by  virtue  of  an  order  submitted  by  Seward  to  Lincoln, 
who  signed  it  without  reading  it. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  247 

"Commissioner  of  Customs,"  which  the  incumbent,  a  Mr. 
Ingram,  wishes  to  vacate.  I  will  be  much  obliged  if  you  agree 
for  me  to  appoint  Mr.  Sargent  to  this  place. 

13th.  (To  Secretary  Cameron.)  You  see  on  the  other 
side  of  this  sheet  that  four  German  regiments  already  raised 
in  New  York  wish  to  form  a  brigade  and  have  Carl  Schurz 
for  their  brigadier-general.  Why  should  it  not  be  done  at 
once?  By  the  plan  of  organization,  I  see  I  am  to  appoint 
the  generals. 

(To  Colonel  F.  P.  Blair.)  We  have  a  good  deal  of 
anxiety  here  about  St.  Louis.  I  understand  an  order  has  gone 
from  the  War  Department  to  you,  to  be  delivered  or  withheld 
in  your  discretion,  relieving  General  Harney  from  his  com- 
mand. I  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  order  when  it  was 
made;  though  on  the  whole  I  thought  it  best  to  make  it;  but 
since  then  I  have  become  more  doubtful  of  its  propriety.  I  do 
not  write  now  to  countermand  it,  but  to  say  I  wish  you  would 
withhold  it,  unless  in  your  judgment  the  necessity  to  the  con- 
trary is  very  urgent.  There  are  several  reasons  for  this.  We 
had  better  have  him  a  friend  than  an  enemy.  It  will  dissatisfy 
a  good  many  who  otherwise  would  be  quiet.  More  than  all, 
we  first  relieve  him,  then  restore  him:  and  now  if  we  relieve 
him  again  the  public  will  ask,    "Why  all  this  vacillation?" 

Still,  if  in  your  judgment  it  is  indispensable,  let  it  be  so. 

22nd.  (To  Governor  E.  D.  Morgan.)  I  wish  to  see  you 
face  to  face  to  clear  these  difficulties  about  forwarding  troops 
from  New  York. 

25th.  (To  Colonel  Ellsworth's  parents.)  In  the  untimely 
loss  of  your  noble  son,  our  affliction  here  is  scarcely  less  than 
your  own.  So  much  of  promised  usefulness  to  one's  country, 
and  of  bright  hopes  for  one's  self  and  friends,  have  rarely 
been  so  suddenly  dashed  as  in  his  fall.  In  size,  in  years,  and 
in  youthful  appearance  a  boy  only,  his  power  to  command  men 
was  surpassingly  great.     This  power,  combined  with  a  fine 


248  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

intellect,  an  indomitable  energy,  and  a  taste  altogether  military, 
constituted  in  him,  as  seemed  to  me,  the  best  natural  talent  in 
that  department  I  ever  knew. 

June  5th.  (To  General  Scott.)  Doubtless  you  begin  to 
understand  how  disagreeable  it  is  for  me  to  do  a  thing  arbi- 
trarily when  it  is  unsatisfactory  to  others  associated  with  me. 

I  very  much  wish  to  appoint  Colonel  Meigs  quartermaster- 
general,  and  yet  General  Cameron  does  not  quite  consent.  I 
have  come  to  know  Colonel  Meigs  quite  well  for  a  short  ac- 
quaintance, and,  so  far  as  I  am  capable  of  judging,  I  do  not 
know  one  who  combines  the  qualities  of  masculine  intellect, 
learning,  and  experience  of  the  right  sort,  and  physical  power 
of  labor  and  endurance,  so  well  as  he. 

I  know  he  has  great  confidence  in  you,  always  sustaining, 
so  far  as  I  have  observed,  your  opinions  against  any  differing 
ones. 

You  will  lay  me  under  one  more  obligation  if  you  can  ^nd 
will  use  your  influence  to  remove  General  Cameron's  objection. 
I  scarcely  need  tell  you  I  have  nothing  personal  in  this,  having 
never  seen  or  heard  of  Colonel  Meigs  until  about  the  end  of 
last  March. 

July  2nd.  (To  the  Commanding  General,  Army  of  the 
United  States.)  You  are  engaged  in  suppressing  an  insur- 
rection against  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  If  at  any  point 
on  or  in  the  vicinity  of  any  military  line  which  is  now  or  which 
shall  be  used  between  the  city  of  New  York  and  the  city  of 
Washington  you  find  resistance  which  renders  it  necessary  to 
suspend  the  writ  of  liabeas  corpus  for  the  public  safety,  you 
personally,  or  through  the  officer  in  command  at  the  point 
where  resistance  occurs,  are  authorized  to  suspend  that  writ. 

4th.  (Message  to  Congress.)  And  this  issue  [the  Right 
of  Secession]  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of  these  United 
States.  It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man  the  question 
whether  a  constitutional  republic  or  democracy — a  Government 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  249 

of  the  people,  by  the  same  people — can  or  can  not  maintain 
its  territorial  integrity  against  its  own  domestic  foes.  It  pre- 
sents the  question  whether  discontented  individuals,  too  few 
in  numbers  to  control  administration,  according  to  organic  law 
in  any  case,  can  always,  upon  the  pretenses,  or  arbitrarily  with- 
out any  pretense,  break  up  their  government,  and  thus  prac- 
tically put  an  end  to  free  government  upon  the  earth.  It  forces 
us  to  ask:  "Is  there,  in  all  republics,  this  inherent  and  fatal 
weakness?'*  "Must  a  government,  of  necessity,  be  too  strong 
for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak  to  maintain 
its  own  existence  ?" 

The  States  have  their  status  in  the  Union,  and  they  have 
no  other  legal  status.  If  they  break  from  this,  they  can  only 
do  so  against  law  and  by  revolution.  The  Union,  and  not 
themselves  separately,  procured  their  independence  and  their 
liberty.  By  conquest  or  purchase  the  Union  gave  each  of 
them  whatever  of  independence  or  liberty  it  has.  The  Union 
is  older  than  any  of  the  States,  and,  in  fact,  it  created  them 
as  States.  Originally,  some  dependent  colonies  made  the 
Union,  and,  in  turn,  the  Union  threw  off  their  old  dependence 
for  them,  and  made  them  States,  such  as  they  are. 

If  all  the  States  save  one  should  assert  the  power  to  drive 
that  one  out  of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the  whole  class  of 
seceder  politicians  would  at  once  deny  the  power  and  denounce 
the  act  as  the  greatest  outrage  upon  State  rights.  But  sup- 
pose that  precisely  the  same  act,  instead  of  being  called  "driv- 
ing the  one  out,"  should  be  called  "the  seceding  of  the  others 
from  that  one,"  it  would  be  exactly  what  the  seceders  claim 
to  do,  unless,  indeed,  they  make  the  point  that  the  one,  because 
it  is  a  minority,  may  rightfully  do  what  the  others,  because 
they  are  a  majority,  may  not  rightfully  do.  These  politicians 
are  subtle  and  profound  on  the  rights  of  minorities.  They 
are  not  partial  to  that  power  which  made  the  Constitution  and 
speaks  from  the  preamble  called  itself  "We,  the  People." 


250  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side  of  the 
Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world  that  form 
and  substance  of  government  whose  leading  object  is  to  ele- 
vate the  condition  of  men — to  lift  artificial  weights  from  all 
shoulders;  to  clear  the  paths  of  laudable  pursuit  for  all;  to 
afford  all  an  unfettered  start,  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of 
life.  Yielding  to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from 
necessity,  this  is  the  leading  object  of  the  government  for 
whose  existence  we  contend. 

Our  popular  government  has  often  been  called  an  experi- 
ment. Two  points  in  it  our  people  have  already  stated — the 
successful  establishing  and  the  successful  administering  of  it. 
One  still  remains — its  successful  maintenance  against  a  for- 
midable internal  attempt  to  overthrow  it.  It  is  now  for  them 
to  demonstrate  to  the  world  that  those  who  can  fairly  carry 
an  election  can  also  suppress  a  rebellion;  that  ballots  are  the 
rightful  and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets;  and  that  when 
ballots  have  been  fairly  and  constitutionally  decided,  there  can 
be  no  successful  appeal  back  to  bullets;  that  there  can  be  no 
successful  appeal,  except  to  ballots  themselves,  at  succeeding 
elections.  Such  will  be  a  great  lesson  of  peace;  teaching  men 
that  what  they  can  not  take  by  an  election,  neither  can  they 
take  it  by  a  war;  teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  beginning 
of  a  war. 

10th.  (To  General  S.  B.  Buckner.)  It  is  my  duty,  as  I 
conceive,  to  suppress  an  insurrection  existing  within  the  United 
States.  I  wish  to  do  this  with  the  least  possible  disturbance 
or  annoyance  to  well-disposed  people  anywhere.  So  far  I  have 
not  sent  an  armed  force  into  Kentucky,  nor  have  I  any  present 
purpose  to  do  so.  I  sincerely  desire  that  no  necessity  for  it 
may  be  presented ;  but  I  mean  to  say  nothing  which  shall  here- 
after embarrass  me  in  the  performance  of  what  may  seem  to 
be  my  duty. 

1 8th.     (To  Secretary  Chase.)     I  can  scarcely  avoid  an 


age  52]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  251 

"unpleasantness,"  not  to  say  a  difficulty,  or  rupture,  respec- 
tively with  Mr.  Senator  King  and  Mr.  Speaker  Grow,  unless 
I  can  find  a  place  for  each  man.  Mr.  Grow,  knowing  I  have 
Mr.  King  on  hand,  as  well  as  himself,  was  here  this  morning, 
insisting  that  the  second  and  fifth  authorships  are  still  open, 
and  that  I  might  give  them  to  Mr.  King's  man  and  to  his. 
Is  the  fact  so?  Are  those  places  open?  If  they  are,  you  would 
both  oblige  and  relieve  me  by  letting  them  go  as  indicated. 

2 1st.  Battle  of  Ball  Run  (First  Manassas)  is  a  disastrous 
Federal  defeat. 

In  ordering  General  McDowell,  zvho  commanded  at  Bull 
Run,  to  offer  battle  against  his  judgment,  Lincoln  had  yielded 
to  the  clamor  of  politicians  in  Congress  who  feared  the  effect 
on  their  constituents  of  military  inaction,  Lincoln  now  roused 
himself  to  defy  them.  Regardless  of  their  wishes  he  selected 
for  high  command  the  man  whom  he  supposed  was  the  best 
soldier  available. 

22nd.  General  George  B.  McClellan  summoned  to  Wash- 
ington as  second  in  command  to  General  Scott. 

23rd. 

1.  Let  the  plan  for  making  the  blockade  effective  be 
pushed  forward  with  all  possible  despatch. 

2.  Let  the  volunteer  forces  at  Fort  Monroe  and  vicinity 
under  General  Butler  be  constantly  drilled,  disciplined,  and  in- 
structed without  more  for  the  present. 

3.  Let  Baltimore  be  held  as  now,  with  a  gentle  but  firm 
and  certain  hand. 

4.  Let  the  force  now  under  Patterson  or  Banks  be 
strengthened  and  made  secure  in  its  position. 

5.  Let  the  forces  in  Western  Virginia  act  till  further  or- 


252  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

ders  according  to  instructions  or  orders   from  General  Mc- 
Clellan. 

6.  Let  General  Fremont  push  forward  his  organization 
and  operations  in  the  West  as  rapidly  as  possible,  giving  rather 
special  attention  to  Missouri. 

7.  Let  the  forces  late  before  Manassas,  except  the  three- 
months  men,  be  reorganized  as  rapidly  as  possible  in  their 
camps  here  and  about  Arlington. 

8.  Let  the  three-months  forces  who  decline  to  enter  the 
longer  service  be  discharged  as  rapidly  as  circumstances  will 
permit. 

9.  Let  the  new  volunteer  forces  be  brought  forward  as 
fast  as  possible,  and  especially  into  the  camps  on  the  two  sides 
of  the  river  here. 

2fth. 

1.  Let  Manassas  Junction  (or  some  point  on  one  or  other 
of  the  railroads  near  it)  and  Strasburg  be  seized,  and  perma- 
nently held,  with  an  open  line  from  Washington  to  Manassas, 
and  an  open  line  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  Strasburg — the  mili- 
tary men  to  find  the  way  of  doing  these. 

2.  This  done,  a  joint  movement  from  Cairo  on  Memphis, 
and  from  Cincinnati  on  East  Tennessee. 

In  answer  to  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  24th  instant,  asking  the  grounds,  reason,  and  evidence 
upon  which  the  police  commissioners  of  Baltimore  were 
arrested  and  are  now  detained  as  prisoners  at  Fort  McHenry, 
I  have  to  state  that  it  is  judged  to  be  incompatible  with  the 
public  interest  at  this  time  to  furnish  the  information  called  for 
by  the  resolution. 

August  8th.  (To  Secretary  Cameron.)  Edward  Ells- 
worth, first  cousin  to  Colonel  Ellsworth,  who  fell  at  Alexan- 
dria, a  non-commissioned  officer  in  the  Fourth  Regiment  of 
Michigan   Volunteers,   now   stationed   at   the    Relay   House, 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  253 

wishes  to  be  a  second  lieutenant  in  the  army.  He  is  present 
while  I  write  this,  and  he  is  an  intelligent  and  an  exceedingly 
wary-appearing  young  man  of  twenty  years  of  age.  I  shall 
be  glad  if  a  place  can  be  found  for  him. 

(To  Gustave  Koerner.)  Your  despatch,  saying  application 
of  German  Brigade  is  withdrawn,  is  just  received.  Without 
occupying  our  standpoint,  you  can  not  conceive  how  this  sub- 
ject embarrasses  us.  We  have  promises  out,  to  more  than 
four  hundred  regiments,  which  if  they  all  come,  are  more  than 
we  want.  If  they  all  come,  we  could  not  take  yours;  if  they 
do  not  all  come  we  shall  want  yours,  and  yet  we  have  no  pos- 
sible means  of  knowing  whether  they  will  all  come  or  not. 
I  hope  you  will  make  due  allowance  for  the  embarrassment  this 
produces. 

1 2th.     (Proclamation.) 

Whereas  a  joint  committee  of  both  Houses  of  Congress 
has  waited  on  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  requested 
him  to  "recommend  a  day  of  public  prayer,  humiliation,  and 
fasting,  to  be  observed  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  with 
religious  solemnities,  and  the  offering  of  fervent  supplications 
to  Almighty  God  for  the  safety  and  welfare  of  these  States, 
His  blessings  on  their  arms,  and  a  speedy  restoration  of  peace ;" 

And  whereas  it  is  fit  and  becoming  in  all  people,  at  all  times, 
to  acknowledge  and  revere  the  supreme  government  of  God; 
to  bow  in  humble  submission  to  His  chastisements ;  to  con- 
fess and  deplore  their  sins  and  transgressions,  in  the  full 
conviction  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wis- 
dom; and  to  pray  with  all  fervency  and  contrition  for  the 
pardon  of  their  past  offenses,  and  for  a  blessing  upon  their 
present  and  prospective  action ; 

And  whereas  when  our  own  beloved  country,  once,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  united,  prosperous,  and  happy,  is  now 
afflicted  with  faction  and  civil  war,  it  is  peculiarly  fit  for  us 
to  recognize  the  hand  of  God  in  this  terrible  visitation,  and  in 


354  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

sorrowful  remembrance  of  our  own  faults  and  crimes  as  a 
nation,  and  as  individuals,  to  humble  ourselves  before  Him 
and  to  pray  for  His  mercy — to  pray  that  we  may  be  spared 
further  punishment  though  most  justly  deserved;  that  our 
arms  may  be  blessed  and  made  effectual  for  the  re-establish- 
ment of  law,  order,  and  peace  throughout  the  wide  extent  of 
our  country;  and  that  the  inestimable  boon  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  earned  under  His  guidance  and  blessing  by  the 
labors  and  sufferings  of  our  fathers,  may  be  restored  in  all  its 
original  excellence; 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  do  appoint  the  last  Thursday  in  September  next  as  a  day 
of  humiliation,  prayer,  and  fasting  for  all  the  people  of  the 
nation.  And  I  do  earnestly  recommend  to  all  the  people,  and 
especially  to  all  ministers  and  teachers  of  religion,  of  all  de- 
nominations, and  to  all  heads  of  families,  to  observe  and  keep 
that  day,  according  to  their  several  creeds  and  modes  of  wor- 
ship, in  all  humility  and  with  all  religious  solemnity,  to  the  end 
that  the  united  prayer  of  the  nation  may  ascend  to  the  Throne 
of  Grace,  and  bring  down  plentiful  blessings  upon  our  country. 

Great  concern  at  Washington  over  Missouri  which  seems 
likely  to  become  a  theater  of  war.  General  Fremont  in  com- 
mand at  St.  Louis. 

15th.  (To  Governor  O.  P.  Morton.)  Start  your  four 
regiments  to  St.  Louis  at  the  earliest  moment  possible.  Get 
such  harness  as  may  be  necessary  for  your  rifled  guns.  Do  not 
delay  a  single  regiment,  but  hasten  everything  forward  as  soon 
as  one  regiment  is  ready.  Have  your  three  additional  regi- 
ments organized  at  once.  We  shall  endeavor  to  send  you  the 
arms  this  week. 

(To  General  Fremont.)  Been  answering  your  messages 
since  day  before  yesterday.    Do  you  receive  the  answers?    The 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  255 

War  Department  had  notified  all  the  governors  you  designate 
to  forward  all  available  forces.  So  telegraphed  you.  Have 
you  received  these  messages?     Answer  immediately. 

The  divided  sentiment  of  the  border  States  is  a  constant 
alarm  to  the  President. 

24th.  (To  Governor  B.  Magoffin  of  Kentucky.)  Your 
letter  of  the  19th  instant,  in  which  you  "urge  the  removal  from 
the  limits  of  Kentucky  of  the  military  force  now  organized  and 
in  camp  within  said  State,"  is  received. 

I  may  not  possess  full  and  precisely  accurate  knowledge 
upon  this  subject,  but  I  believe  it  is  true  that  there  is  a  military 
force  in  camp  within  Kentucky,  acting  by  authority  of  the 
United  States,  which  force  is  not  very  large,  and  is  not  now 
being  augmented.  I  also  believe  that  some  arms  have  been 
furnished  to  this  force  by  the  United  States. 

I  also  believe  that  this  force  consists  exclusively  of  Ken- 
tuckians,  having  their  camp  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their 
own  homes,  and  not  assailing  or  menacing  any  of  the  good 
people  of  Kentucky. 

In  all  I  have  done  in  the  premises,  I  have  acted  upon  the 
urgent  solicitation  of  many  Kentuckians,  and  in  accordance 
with  what  I  believed,  and  still  believe,  to  be  the  wish  of  a 
majority  of  all  the  Union-loving  people  of  Kentucky. 

While  I  have  conversed  on  this  subject  with  many  eminent 
men  of  Kentucky,  including  a  large  majority  of  her  members 
of  Congress,  I  do  not  remember  that  any  one  of  them,  or  any 
other  person,  except  your  Excellency  and  the  bearers  of  your 
Excellency's  letter,  has  urged  me  to  remove  the  military  force 
from  Kentucky  or  to  disband  it.  One  other  very  worthy  citi- 
zen of  Kentucky  did  solicit  me  to  have  the  augmenting  of  the 
force  suspended  for  a  time. 

Taking  all  the  means  within  my  reach  to  form  a  judgment, 


256  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

I  do  not  believe  it  is  the  popular  wish  of  Kentucky  that  this 
force  shall  be  removed  beyond  her  limits;  and,  with  this  im- 
pression, I  must  respectfully  decline  to  so  remove  it. 

I  most  cordially  sympathize  with  your  Excellency  in  the 
wish  to  preserve  the  peace  of  my  own  native  State,  Kentucky, 
but  it  is  with  regret  I  search  for  and  can  not  find,  in  your  not 
very  short  letter,  any  declaration  or  intimation  that  you  enter- 
tain any  desire  for  the  preservation  of  the  Federal  Union. 

30th.  Fremont  at  St.  Louis,  issues  an  order  freeing  slaves 
in  his  district  and  establishing  a  bureau  of  abolition.  This  is 
a  sort  of  defiance  of  the  President  who  has  refused  to  make 
abolition  the  issue  of  the  war.  He  insists  that  the  purpose  of 
the  war  is  merely  to  restore  the  Union. 

September  2nd.  (To  General  John  C.  Fremont.)  Two 
points  in  your  proclamation  of  August  20  give  me  some 
anxiety. 

First.  Should  you  shoot  a  man,  according  to  the  procla- 
mation, the  Confederates  would  very  certainly  shoot  our  best 
men  in  their  hands  in  retaliation ;  and  so,  man  for  man,  in- 
definitely. It  is,  therefore,  my  order  that  you  allow  no  man 
to  be  shot  under  the  proclamation  without  first  having  my 
approbation  or  consent. 

Second.  I  think  there  is  great  danger  that  the  closing  para- 
graph, in  relation  to  the  confiscation  of  property  and  the  lib- 
erating slaves  of  traitorous  owners,  will  alarm  our  Southern 
Union  friends  and  turn  them  against  us;  perhaps  ruin  our 
rather  fair  prospect  for  Kentucky.  Allow  me,  therefore,  to  ask 
that  you  will,  as  of  your  own  motion,  modify  that  paragraph 
so  as  to  conform  to  the  first  and  fourth  sections  of  the  act 
of  Congress  entitled,  "An  act  to  confiscate  property  used  for 
insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August  6,  1861,  and  a 
copy  of  which  act  I  herewith  send  you. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  257 

This  letter  is  written  in  a  spirit  of  caution,  and  not  of  cen- 
sure. I  send  it  by  special  messenger,  in  order  that  it  may  cer- 
tainly and  speedily  reach  you. 

pth.  (To  General  David  Hunter.)  General  Fremont 
needs  assistance  which  it  is  difficult  to  give  him.  He  is  losing 
the  confidence  of  men  near  him,  whose  support  any  man  in 
his  position  must  have  to  be  successful.  His  cardinal  mistake 
is  that  he  isolates  himself  and  allows  nobody  to  see  him,  and 
by  which  he  does  not  know  what  is  going  on  in  the  very  matter 
he  is  dealing  with.  He  needs  to  have  by  his  side  a  man  of 
large  experience.  Will  you  not,  for  me,  take  that  place? 
Your  rank  is  one  grade  too  high  to  be  ordered  to  it,  but 
will  you  not  serve  the  country  and  oblige  me  by  taking  it 
voluntarily  ? 

nth.  (To  General  Fremont.)  Yours  of  the  8th,  in  an- 
swer to  mine  of  the  2nd  instant,  is  just  received.  Assuming 
that  you,  upon  the  ground,  could  better  judge  of  the  necessities 
of  your  position  than  I  could  at  this  distance,  on  seeing  your 
proclamation  of  August  30  I  perceived  no  general  objection 
to  it.  The  particular  clause,  however,  in  relation  to  the  con- 
fiscation of  property  and  the  liberation  of  slaves  appeared  to 
me  to  be  objectionable  in  its  noncomformity  to  the  act  of  Con- 
gress passed  the  6th  of  last  August  upon  the  same  subjects; 
and  hence  I  wrote  you,  expressing  my  wish  that  that  clause 
should  be  modified  accordingly.  Your  answer,  just  received, 
expresses  the  preference  on  your  part  that  I  should  make  an 
open  order  for  the  modification,  which  I  very  cheerfully  do. 
It  is  therefore  ordered  that  the  said  clause  of  said  proclamation 
be  so  modified,  held,  and  construed  as  to  conform  to,  and  not 
4.0  transcend,  the  provisions  on  the  same  subject  contained  in 
the  act  of  Congress,  entitled,  "An  act  to  confiscate  property 
used  for  insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August  6,  1861, 
and  that  said  act  be  published  at  length  with  this  order. 

1 2th.     (To  Mrs.  Fremont,  who  has  come  to  Washington 


258  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

post-haste  to  complain  that  her  husband  is  being  treated  ill.) 
Your  two  notes  of  to-day  are  before  me.  I  answered  the  letter 
you  bore  me  from  General  Fremont  on  yesterday,  and  not 
hearing  from  you  during  the  day,  I  sent  the  answer  to  him 
by  mail.  It  is  not  exactly  correct,  as  you  say  you  were  told 
by  the  elder  Mr.  Blair,  to  say  that  I  sent  Postmaster-General 
Blair  to  St.  Louis  to  examine  into  that  department  and  report. 
Postmaster-General  Blair  did  go,  with  my  approbation,  to  see 
and  converse  with  General  Fremont  as  a  friend.  I  do  not  feel 
authorized  to  furnish  you  with  copies  of  letters  in  my  pos- 
session without  the  consent  of  the  writers.  No  impression  has 
been  made  on  my  mind  against  the  honor  or  integrity  of  Gen- 
eral Fremont,  and  I  now  enter  my  protest  against  being 
understood  as  acting  in  any  hostility  toward  him. 

There  is  bitter  protest  over  the  cancelling  of  Fremont's 
abolition  proclamation. 

22nd.  (To  O.  H.  Browning.)  General  Fremont's  procla- 
mation as  to  confiscation  of  property  and  the  liberation  of 
slaves  is  purely  political  and  not  within  the  range  of  military 
law  or  necessity.  If  a  commanding  general  finds  a  necessity 
to  seize  the  farm  of  a  private  owner  for  a  pasture,  an  encamp- 
ment, or  a  fortification,  he  has  the  right  to  do  so,  and  to  so 
hold  it  as  long  as  the  necessity  lasts ;  and  this  is  within  military 
law,  because  within  military  necessity.  But  to  say  the  farm 
shall  no  longer  belong  to  the  owner,  or  his  heirs  forever,  and 
this  as  well  when  the  farm  is  not  needed  for  military  purposes 
as  when  it  is,  is  purely  political,  without  the  savor  of  military 
law  about  it.  And  the  same  is  true  of  slaves.  If  the  general 
needs  them,  he  can  seize  them  and  use  them ;  but  when  the  need 
is  past,  it  is  not  for  him  to  fix  their  permanent  future  con- 
dition. That  must  be  settled  according  to  laws  made  by  law- 
makers, and  not  by  military  proclamations.    The  proclamation 


ace  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  259 

in  the  point  in  question  is  simply  "dictatorship."  It  assumes 
that  the  general  may  do  anything  he  pleases — confiscate  the 
lands  and  free  the  slaves  of  loyal  people,  as  well  as  of  disloyal 
ones.  And  going  the  whole  figure,  I  have  no  doubt,  would 
be  more  popular  with  some  thoughtless  people  than  that  which 
has  been  done!  But  I  can  not  assume  this  reckless  position, 
nor  allow  others  to  assume  it  on  my  responsibility. 

You  speak  of  it  as  being  the  only  means  of  saving  the 
government.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  itself  the  surrender  of 
the  government.  Can  it  be  pretended  that  it  is  any  longer  the 
Government  of  the  United  States — any  government  of  con- 
stitution and  laws — wherein  a  general  or  a  president  may 
make  permanent  rules  of  property  by  proclamation?  I  do  not 
say  Congress  might  not  with  propriety  pass  a  law  on  the  point, 
just  such  as  General  Fremont  proclaimed.  I  do  not  say  I 
might  not,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  vote  for  it.  What  I 
object  to  is,  that  I,  as  President,  shall  expressly  or  impliedly 
seize  and  exercise  the  permanent  legislative  functions  of  the 
government. 

So  much  as  to  principle.  Now  as  to  policy.  No  doubt  the 
thing  was  popular  in  some  quarters,  and  would  have  been 
more  so  if  it  had  been  a  general  declaration  of  emancipation. 
The  Kentucky  Legislature  would  not  budge  till  that  procla- 
mation was  modified;  and  General  Anderson  telegraphed  me 
that  on  the  news  of  General  Fremont  having  actually  issued 
deeds  of  manumission,  a  whole  company  of  our  volunteers 
threw  down  their  arms  and  disbanded.  I  was  so  assured  as 
to  think  it  probable  that  the  very  arms  we  had  furnished  Ken- 
tucky would  be  turned  against  us.  I  think  to  lose  Kentucky 
is  nearly  the  same  as  to  lose  the  whole  game.  Kentucky 
gone,  we  can  not  hold  Missouri,  nor,  as  I  think,  Maryland. 
These  all  against  us,  and  the  job  on  our  hands  is  too  large 
for  us.  We  would  as  well  consent  to  separation  at  once, 
including  the  surrender  of  this  capital. 


260  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

The  government  is  unable  to  find  arms  for  its  soldiers. 
Only  through  purchases  in  Europe — 726,000  rifles,  the  first 
year — is  it  able  to  equip  its  forces. 

2pth.     (To  Governor  Morton.)     You  do  not  receive  arms 
from  us  as  fast  as  you  need  them;  but  it  is  because  we  have 
not  near  enough  to  meet  all  the  pressing  demands,  and  we  are 
obliged  to  share  around  what  we  have,  sending  the  larger  share 
to  the  points  which  appear  to  need  them  most.     We  have  great 
hope  that  our  own  supply  will  be  ample  before  long,  so  that 
you  and  all  others  can  have  as  many  as  you  need.     I  see  an 
article  in  an  Indianapolis  newspaper  denouncing  me  for  not 
answering  your  letter  sent  by  special  messenger  two  or  three 
weeks  ago.    I  did  make  what  I  thought  the  best  answer  to  that 
letter.     As  I  remember,  it  asked  for  ten  heavy  guns  to  be  dis- 
tributed, with  some  troops,  at  Lawrenceburg,  Madison,  New 
Albany,  and  Evansville;  and  I  ordered  the  guns  and  directed 
you  to  send  the  troops,  if  you  had  them.     As  to  Kentucky, 
you  do  not  estimate  that  State  as  more  important  than  I  do, 
but  I  am  compelled  to  watch  all  points.     While  I  write  this  I 
am,  if  not  in  range,  at  least  in  hearing  of  cannon-shot  from 
an  army  of  enemies  more  than  1,000,000  strong.     I  do  not 
expect  them  to  capture  this  city;  but  I  know  they  would  if  I 
were  to  send  men  and  arms  from  here  to  defend  Louisville,  of 
which  there  is  not  a  single  hostile  armed  soldier  within  forty 
miles,  nor  any  force  known  to  be  moving  upon  it  from  any 
distance.     It  is  true  the  army  in  our  front  may  make  a  half- 
circle  around  southward  and  move  on  Louisville,  but  when 
they  do  we  will  meet  them;  and  in  the  meantime  we  will  get 
up  what  forces  we  can  from  other  sources  to  also  meet  them. 

The  importance  of  East   Tennessee  because   of  its  anti- 
slavery  popidation  is  ever  in  Lincoln's  thoughts. 

October  1st.    On  or  about  the  5th  of  October  (the  exact 


age  52]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  261 

date  to  be  determined  hereafter)  I  wish  a  movement  made  to 
seize  and  hold  a  point  on  the  railroad  connecting  Virginia  and 
Tennessee,  near  the  mountain-pass  called  Cumberland  Gap. 

As  to  movements,  my  idea  is  that  the  one  for  the  coast  and 
that  on  Cumberland  Gap  be  simultaneous,  and  that  in  the  mean- 
time preparation,  vigilant  watching,  and  the  defensive  only  be 
acted  upon ;  this,  however,  not  to  apply  to  Fremont's  operations 
in  northern  and  middle  Missouri. 

14th.  (To  General  Scott.)  The  military  line  of  the 
United  States  for  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  may  be 
extended  so  far  as  Bangor,  Me.  You  and  any  officer  acting 
under  your  authority  are  hereby  authorized  to  suspend  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  in  any  place  between  that  place  and  the  city 
of  Washington. 

2 1st.  (To  Archbishop  Hughes).  I  am  sure  you  will 
pardon  me  if  in  my  ignorance  I  do  not  address  you  with  tech- 
nical correctness.  I  find  no  law  authorizing  the  appointment 
of  chaplains  for  our  hospitals;  and  yet  the  services  of  chaplains 
are  more  needed,  perhaps,  in  the  hospitals  than  with  the  healthy 
soldiers  in  the  field.  With  this  view,  I  have  given  a  sort  of 
quasi  appointment  (a  copy  of  which  I  inclose)  to  each  of  three 
Protestant  ministers,  who  have  accepted  and  entered  upon 
their  duties.  If  you  perceive  no  objection,  I  will  thank  you  to 
give  me  the  name  or  names  of  one  or  more  suitable  persons  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  to  whom  I  may  with  propriety  tender 
the  same  service. 

Fremont  for  various  reasons  has  become  impossible. 

24th.  (To  General  S.  R.  Curtis.)  On  receipt  of  this,  with 
the  accompanying  inclosures,  you  will  take  safe,  certain,  and 
suitable  measures  to  have  the  inclosure  addressed  to  Major- 
General  Fremont  delivered  to  him  with  all  reasonable  despatch, 


262  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  U861 

subject  to  these  conditions  only:  that  if,  when  General  Fre- 
mont shall  be  reached  by  the  messenger — yourself  or  any  one 
sent  by  you — he  shall  then  have,  in  personal  command,  fought 
and  won  a  battle,  or  shall  then  be  actually  in  a  battle,  or  shall 
then  be  in  the  immediate  presence  of  the  enemy  in  expectation 
of  a  battle,  it  is  not  to  be  delivered,  but  held  for  further  orders. 
After,  and  not  till*  after,  the  delivery  to  General  Fremont,  let 
the  inclosure  addressed  to  General  Hunter  be  delivered  to  him. 

(General  Orders  No.  18.) 

Headquarters  of  the  Army, 

Washington,  October  24,  1861. 
Major-General  Fremont,  of  the  U.  S.  Army,  the  present 
commander  of  the  Western  Department  of  the  same,  will,  on 
the  receipt  of  this  order,  call  Major-General  Hunter  of  the 
U.  S.  Volunteers,  to  relieve  him  temporarily  in  that  command, 
when  he,  (Major-General  Fremont)  will  report  to  General 
Headquarters,  by  letter,   for   further  orders. 

WINFIELD  SCOTT. 
By  command :  E.  D.  TOWNSEND, 

Assistant  Adjutant-General. 

(To  the  Commander  of  the  Department  of  the  West.) 
The  command  of  the  Department  of  the  West  having  de- 
volved upon  you,  I  propose  to  offer  you  a  few  suggestions. 
Knowing  how  hazardous  it  is  to  bind  down  a  distant  com- 
mander in  the  field  to  specific  lines  and  operations,  as  so  much 
always  depends  on  a  knowledge  of  localities  and  passing 
events,  it  is  intended,  therefore,  to  leave  a  considerable  margin 
for  the  exercise  of  your  judgment  and  discretion. 

The  main  rebel  army  (Price's)  west  of  the  Mississippi  is 
believed  to  have  passed  Dade  County  in  full  retreat  upon  north- 
western Arkansas,  leaving  Missouri  almost  freed  from  the 
enemy,  excepting  in  the  southeast  of  the  State.  Assuming  this 
basis  of  fact,  it  seems  desirable,  as  you  are  not  likely  to  over- 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  263 

take  Price,  and  are  in  danger  of  making  too  long  a  line  from 
your  own  base  of  supplies  and  reinforcements,  that  you  should 
give  up  the  pursuit,  halt  your  main  army,  divide  it  into  two 
corps  of  observation,  one  occupying  Sedalia  and  the  other 
Rolla,  the  present  termini  of  railroads;  then  recruit  the  con- 
dition of  both  corps  by  reestablishing  and  improving  their  dis- 
cipline and  instructions,  perfecting  their  clothing  and  equip- 
ments, and  providing  less  uncomfortable  quarters. 

November  1st.  On  the  1st  day  of  November,  a.  d.,  1861, 
upon  his  own  application  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
Brevet  Lieutenant-General  Winfield  Scott  is  ordered  to  be 
placed,  and  hereby  is  placed,  upon  the  list  of  retired  officers  of 
the  Army  of  the  United  States,  without  reduction  in  his  cur- 
rent pay,  subsistence,  or  allowances. 

The  American  people  will  hear  with  sadness  and  deep 
emotion  that  General  Scott  has  withdrawn  from  the  active 
control  of  the  Army,  while  the  President  and  a  unanimous 
Cabinet  express  their  own  and  the  nation's  sympathy  in  his 
personal  affliction,  and  their  profound  sense  of  the  important 
public  services  rendered  by  him  to  his  country  during  his  long 
and  brilliant  career,  among  which  will  ever  be  gratefully  dis- 
tinguished his  faithful  devotion  to  the  Constitution,  the  Union, 
and  the  flag  when  assailed  by  parricidal  rebellion. 

The  President  is  pleased  to  direct  that  Major-General 
George  B.  McClellan  assume  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the 
United  States. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Army  will  be  established  in  the 
city  of  Washington. 

The  promotion  of  McClellan  makes  trouble  for  Lincoln  in 
Congress  because  McClellan  is  a  Democrat  and  the  Republican 
majority  want  a  commanding  general  of  their  own  party;  but 
Lincoln  is  determined  to  stake  everything  on  the  professional 
soldier. 


264  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1861 

8th.  Confederate  envoys,  Mason  and  Slidell,  taken  off  the 
British  merchant  vessel  Trent  by  U.  S.  cruiser.  Great  excite- 
ment throughout  the  United  States.  All  the  friends  of  Fre- 
mont and  other  radical  politicians  insist  on  returning  the 
envoys. 

I  fear  the  traitors  will  prove  to  be  white  elephants.  We 
must  stick  to  American  principles  concerning  the  rights  of  neu- 
trals. We  fought  Great  Britain  for  insisting  by  theory  and 
practise  on  the  right  to  do  exactly  what  Captain  Wilkes  has 
done.  If  Great  Britain  shall  now  protest  against  the  act  and 
demand  their  release,  we  must  give  them  up,  apologize  for  the 
act  as  a  violation  of  our  doctrines,  and  thus  forever  bind  her 
over  to  keep  the  peace  in  relation  to  neutrals,  and  so  acknowl- 
edge that  she  has  been  wrong  for  sixty  years. 

Despite  the  popidar  clamor,  Mason  and  Slidell  are  allowed 
to  proceed  on  their  journey  to  Liverpool. 

Lincoln  realizes  how  dangerous  may  be  the  power  of  the 
press  in  time  of  war. 

2 1  st.  (To  Governor  Walker.)  I  have  thought  over  the 
interview  which  Mr.  Gilmore  has  had  with  Mr.  Greeley,  and 
the  proposal  that  Greeley  has  made  to  Gilmore,  namely,  that 
he  (Gilmore)  shall  communicate  to  him  (Greeley)  all  that  he 
learns  from  you  of  the  inner  workings  of  the  administration, 
in  return  for  his  (Greeley's)  giving  such  aid  as  he  can  to  the 
new  magazine,  and  allowing  you  (Walker)  from  time  to  time 
the  use  of  his  (Greeley's)  columns  when  it  is  desirable  to  feel 
of,  or  forestall,  public  opinion  on  important  subjects.  The 
arrangement  meets  my  unqualified  approval,  and  I  shall 
further  it  to  the  extent  of  my  ability,  by  opening  to  you — as  I 
do  now — fully  the  policy   of  the  .Government — its   present 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  265 

views  and  future  intentions  when  formed,  giving  you  permis- 
sion to  communicate  them  to  Gilmore  for  Greeley ;  and  in  case 
you  go  to  Europe  I  will  give  these  things  direct  to  Gilmore. 
But  all  this  must  be  on  the  express  and  explicit  understanding 
that  the  fact  of  these  communications  coming  from  me  shall 
be  absolutely  confidential — not  to  be  disclosed  by  Greeley  to  his 
nearest  friend,  or  any  of  his  subordinates.  He  will  be,  in 
effect,  my  mouthpiece,  but  I  shall  not  be  known  to  be  the 
speaker. 

I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  have  the  highest  confidence  in 
Mr.  Greeley.  He  is  a  great  power,  Having  him  firmly  behind 
me  will  be  as  helpful  to  me  as  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand 
men.  That  he  has  ever  kicked  the  traces  has  been  owing  to  his 
not  being  fully  informed.  Tell  Gilmore  to  say  tt>  him  that,  if 
he  ever  objects  to  my  policy,  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  him  state 
to  me  his  views  frankly  and  fully.  I  shall  adopt  his  if  I  can. 
If  I  can  not,  I  will  at  least  tell  him  why.  He  and  I  should 
stand  together,  and  let  no  minor  differences  come  between  us; 
for  we  both  seek  one  end,  which  is  the  saving  of  our  country. 
Now,  Governor,  this  is  a  longer  letter  than  I  have  written  in  a 
month — longer  than  I  would  have  written  for  any  other  man 
than  Horace  Greeley. 

In  McClellan  Lincoln  appears  to  have  made  a  mistake.  The 
new  General  treats  the  President  as  a  crude  layman,  even  snubs 
him. 

While  Lincoln  waits  for  McClellan  at  the  latter9 s  house 
the  General  comes  in  and  instead  of  meeting  the  President 
quietly  slips  off  to  bed.  Young  Hay,  Lincoln's  secretary, 
is  furious  at  this  "insolence  of  epaulettes/'  Lincoln  wearily 
replies — 

I  will  hold  McClellan's  horse  if  he  will  only  win  me  vic- 
tories. 


266  ABRAHAM    EINCOLN  [1861 

December  1st.  (Inquiries  and  observations  by  the  Presi- 
dent: replies  to  inquiries,  in  italics,  by  General  McClellan.)  If 
it  were  determined  to  make  a  forward  movement  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  without  awaiting  further  increase  of  numbers 
or  better  drill  and  discipline,  how  long  would  it  require  to 
actually  get  in  motion? 

//  bridge  trains  ready  by  December  15th,  probably  25th. 

After  leaving  all  that  would  be  necessary,  how  many  troops 
could  join  the  movement  from  southwest  of  the  river? 

Seventy-one  thousand. 

How  many  from  northeast  of  it? 

Thirty-three  thousand. 

Suppose,  then,  that  of  those  southwest  of  the  river  fifty 
thousand  move  forward  and  menace  the  enemy  at  Centerville ; 
the  remainder  of  the  movable  force  on  that  side  move  rapidly 
to  the  crossing  of  the  Occoquan  by  the  road  from  Alexandria 
to  Richmond,  there  to  be  joined  by  the  whole  movable  force 
from  northeast  of  the  river,  having  landed  from  the  Potomac, 
just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Occoquan,  moved  by  land  up  the 
south  side  of  that  stream  to  the  crossing  point  named,  then  the 
whole  move  together  by  the  road  thence  to  Brentsville  and 
beyond  to  the  railroad  just  south  of  its  crossing  of  Broad 
Run,  a  strong  detachment  of  cavalry  having  gone  rapidly 
ahead  to  destroy  the  railroad  bridges  south  and  north  of  the 
point. 

If  the  crossing  of  the  Occoquan  by  those  from  above  be 
resisted,  those  landing  from  the  Potomac  below  to  take  the 
resisting  force  of  the  enemy  in  the  rear;  or,  if  the  landing 
from  the  Potomac  be  resisted,  those  crossing  the  Occoquan 
from  above  to  take  that  resisting  force  in  the  rear.  Both 
points  will  probably  not  be  successfully  resisted  at  the  same 
time. 

Armed  vessels  and  transportation  should  remain  at  the 
Potomac  landing  to  cover  a  possible  retreat. 


age  5*  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  267 

3rd.  (Message  to  Congress.)  The  war  continues.  In 
considering  the  policy  to  be  adopted  for  suppressing  the  insur- 
rection, I  have  been  anxious  and  careful  that  the  inevitable 
conflict  for  this  purpose  shall  not  degenerate  into  a  violent  and 
remorseless  revolutionary  struggle.  I  have,  therefore,  in  every 
case  thought  it  proper  to  keep  the  integrity  of  the  Union 
prominent  as  the  primary  object  of  the  contest  on  our  part, 
leaving  all  questions  which  are  not  of  vital  military  importance 
to  the  more  deliberate  action  of  the  Legislature. 

In  the  exercise  of  my  best  discretion  I  have  adhered  to  the 
blockade  of  the  ports  held  by  the  insurgents,  instead  of  putting 
in  force,  by  proclamation,  the  law  of  Congress  enacted  at  the 
last  session  for  closing  those  ports. 

So,  also,  obeying  the  dictates  of  prudence  as  well  as  the 
obligations  of  law,  instead  of  transcending,  I  have  adhered  to 
the  act  of  Congress  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrec- 
tionary purposes.  If  a  new  law  upon  the  same  subject  shall 
be  proposed,  its  propriety  will  be  duly  considered.  The  Union 
must  be  preserved ;  and  hence  all  indispensable  means  must  be 
employed.  We  should  not  be  in  haste  to  determine  that  rad- 
ical and  extreme  measures,  which  may  reach  the  loyal  as  well 
as  the  disloyal,  are  indispensable. 

It  continues  to  develop  that  the  insurrection  is  largely,  if 
not  exclusively,  a  war  upon  the  first  principle  of  popular  gov- 
ernment— the  rights  of  the  people.  Conclusive  evidence  of 
this  is  found  in  the  most  grave  and  maturely  considered  public 
documents,  as  well  as  in  the  general  tone  of  the  insurgents. 
In  those  documents  we  find  the  abridgment  of  the  exist- 
ing right  of  suffrage,  and  the  denial  to  the  people  of  aH 
right  to  participate  in  the  selection  of  public  officers  except 
the  legislative,  boldly  advocated,  with  labored  arguments  to 
prove  that  large  control  of  the  people  in  government  is  the 
source  of  all  political  evil.  Monarchy  itself  is  sometimes  hinted 
at  as  a  possible  refuge  from  the  power  of  the  people. 


268  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1861 

In  my  present  position  I  could  scarcely  be  justified  were 
I  to  omit  raising  a  warning  voice  against  this  approach  of 
returning  despotism. 

It  is  not  needed,  nor  fitting  here  that  a  general  argument 
should  be  made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions;  but  there  is 
one  point,  with  its  connections,  not  so  hackneyed  as  most  others 
to  which  I  ask  a  brief  attention.  It  is  the  effort  to  place  cap- 
ital on  an  equal  footing  with,  if  not  above,  labor,  in  the  struc- 
ture of  government.  It  is  assumed  that  labor  is  available  only 
in  connection  with  capital;  that  nobody  labors  unless  some- 
body else,  owning  capital,  somehow  by  the  use  of  it  induces 
him  to  labor.  This  assumed,  it  is  next  considered  whether  it 
is  best  that  capital  shall  hire  laborers,  and  thus  induce  them  to 
work  by  their  own  consent,  or  buy  them,  and  drive  them  to  it 
without  their  consent.  Having  proceeded  thus  far,  it  is  nat- 
urally concluded  that  all  laborers  are  either  hired  laborers  or 
what  we  call  slaves.  And  further,  it  is  assumed  that  whoever 
is  once  a  hired  laborer  is  fixed  in  that  condition  for  life. 

Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital  and  labor 
as  assumed;  nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a  free  man  being 
fixed  for  life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired  laborer.  Both  these 
assumptions  are  false,  and  all  inferences  from  them  are 
groundless. 

Labor  is  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  capital.  Capital  is 
only  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if  labor 
had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and 
deserves  much  the  higher  consideration.  Capital  has  its  rights, 
which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as  any  other  rights. 

Innumerable  details  of  dissatisfaction  claim  the  President's 
attention. 

14th.  (To  Rev.  Dr.  A.  Fischel.)  I  find  that  there  are 
several   particulars   in   which   the   present   law   in   regard   to 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  269 

Chaplains  is  supposed  to  be  deficient,  all  of  which  I  now  design 
presenting  to  the  appropriate  Committee  of  Congress.  I  shall 
try  to  have  a  new  law  broad  enough  to  cover  what  is  desired 
by  you  in  behalf  of  the  Israelites. 

31st.  (To  General  Halleck,  in  command  of  the  West.) 
General  McClellan  is  sick.  Are  General  Buell  and  yourself  in 
concert?  When  he  moves  on  Bowling  Green,  what  hinders  it 
being  reinforced  from  Columbus?  A  simultaneous  movement 
by  you  on  Columbus  might  prevent  it. 

(To  Major-General  Hunter,  who  is  forever  complaining.) 
Yours  of  the  23rd  is  received,  and  I  am  constrained  to  say 
it  is  difficult  to  answer  so  ugly  a  letter  in  good  temper. 
I  am,  as  you  intimate,  losing  much  of  the  great  confidence 
I  placed  in  you,  not  from  any  act  of  omission  of  yours  touch- 
ing the  public  service  up  to  the  time  you  were  sent  to  Leaven- 
worth, but  from  the  flood  of  grumbling  despatches  and  let- 
ters I  have  seen  from  you  since. 

I  have  been,  and  am,  sincerely  your  friend;  and  if,  as  such 
I  dare  to  make  a  suggestion,  I  would  say  you  are  adopting  the 
best  possible  way  to  ruin  yourself.  "Act  well  your  part,  there 
all  the  honor  lies."  He  who  does  something  at  the  head  of 
one  Regiment,  will  eclipse  him  who  does  nothing  at  the  head 
of  a  hundred. 


1862 

Lincoln  is  very  eager  to  have  the  Western  generals  march 
to  the  assistance  of  the  people  of  Eastern  Tennessee  who  are 
mainly  for  the  Union. 

January  1st.  (To  General  D.  C.  Buell.)  General  Mc- 
Clellan  should  not  be  disturbed  with  business.  I  think  you 
better  get  in  concert  with  General  Halleck  at  once.  I  write 
you  to-night.     I  also  telegraph  and  write  Halleck. 

(To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  General  McClellan  is  not 
dangerously  ill,  as  I  hope,  but  would  better  not  be  disturbed 
with  business.  I  am  very  anxious  that,  in  case  of  General 
Buell's  moving  toward  Nashville,  the  enemy  shall  not  be  greatly 
re-in  forced,  and  I  think  there  is  danger  he  will  be  from  Colum- 
bus. It  seems  to  me  that  a  real  or  feigned  attack  on  Columbus 
from  up-river  at  the  same  time  would  either  prevent  this  or 
compensate  for  it  by  throwing  Columbus  into  our  hands.  I 
wrote  General  Buell  a  letter  similar  to  this,  meaning  that  he 
and  you  shall  communicate  and  act  in  concert,  unless  it  be  your 
judgment  and  his  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  it.  You  and 
he  will  understand  much  better  than  I  how  to  do  it.  Please 
do  not  lose  time  in  this  matter. 

6th.  (To  General  D.  C.  Buell.)  Your  despatch  of  yes- 
terday has  been  received  and  it  disappoints  and  distresses  me. 
My  distress  is  that  our  friends  in  East  Tennessee  are  being 
hanged  and  driven  to  despair  and  even  now  I  fear  are  taking 
rebel  arms  for  the  sake  of  personal  protection.  In  this  we  lose 
the  most  valuable  state  we  have  in  the  South.  My  despatch  to 
which  yours  is  an  answer  was  sent  with  the  knowledge  of  Sen- 
ator Johnson  and  Representative  Maynard  of  East  Tennessee 

270 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  271 

and  they  will  be  upon  me  to  know  the  answer  which  I  can  not 
safely  show  them.  They  would  despair;  possibly  resign  to  go 
and  save  their  families  somehow  or  die  with  them. 

I  do  not  intend  this  to  be  an  order  in  any  sense  but  merely 
as  intimated  before  to  show  you  the  grounds  of  my  anxiety. 

Jth.  (To  General  D.  C.  Buell.)  Please  name  as  early  a 
day  as  you  safely  can  on  or  before  which  you  can  be  ready  to 
move  southward  in  concert  with  Major-General  Halleck.  De- 
lay is  ruining  us,  and  it  is  indispensable  for  me  to  have  some- 
thing definite.  I  send  a  like  despatch  to  Major-General 
Halleck. 

10th.  (Indorsement.)  The  within  is  a  copy  of  a  letter 
just  received  from  General  Halleck.  It  is  exceedingly  dis- 
couraging.    As  everywhere  else,  nothing  can  be  done. 

All  this  while  bitter  intrigues  inside  the  ruling  party. 
Cameron  disagrees  with  his  chief  and  tries  to  play  into  the 
hands  of  the  Abolitionists.  His  enemies  accuse  him  of  pecu- 
lation. Lincoln  forces  him  to  offer  his  resignation,  but  at  the 
same  time  devises  a  way  to  save  his  face  for  him. 

nth.  (To  Secretary  Cameron.)  Though  I  have  said 
nothing  hitherto  in  response  to  your  wish,  expressed  long  since, 
to  resign  your  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  I  have  not  been  unmindful 
of  it.  I  have  been  only  unwilling  to  consent  to  a  change  at  a 
time  and  under  circumstances  which  might  give  occasion  to 
misconstruction,  and  unable  till  now  to  see  how  such  miscon- 
struction could  be  avoided. 

But  the  desire  of  Mr.  Clay  to  return  home  and  to  offer  his 
services  to  his  country  in  the  field  enables  me  now  to  gratify 
your  wish,  and  at  the  same  time  evince  my  personal  regard  for 
you,  and  my  confidence  in  your  ability,  patriotism,  and  fidelity 
to  public  trust. 

I  therefore  tender  for  your  acceptance,  if  you  still  desire  to 
resign  your  present  position,  the  post  of  minister  to  Russia. 


2>j2  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

Should  you  accept  it,  you  will  bear  with  you  the  assurance  of 
my  undiminished  confidence,  of  my  affectionate  esteem,  and 
of  my  sure  expectation  that,  near  the  great  sovereign  whose 
personal  and  hereditary  friendship  for  the  United  States  so 
much  endears  him  to  Americans,  you  will  be  able  to  render 
services  to  your  country  not  less  important  than  those  you 
could  render  at  home. 

(To  dissatisfied  Republican  Senators  who  urge  him  to  ap- 
point a  whole  new  Cabinet.)  Gentlemen,  your  request  for  a 
change  of  the  whole  Cabinet  because  I  have  made  one  change 
reminds  me  of  a  story  I  once  heard  in  Illinois,  of  a  farmer  who 
was  much  troubled  with  skunks.  His  wife  insisted  on  his  try- 
ing to  get  rid  of  them. 

He  loaded  his  shotgun  one  moonlight  night  and  awaited 
developments.  After  some  time  the  wife  heard  the  shotgun 
go  off,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  farmer  entered  the  house. 

"What  luck  have  you?"  asked  she. 

"I  hid  myself  behind  the  wood-pile,"  said  the  old  man,  "with 
the  shotgun  pointed  toward  the  hen-roost,  and  before  long 
there  appeared  not  one  skunk,  but  seven.  I  took  aim,  blazed 
away,  killed  one,  and  he  raised  such  a  fearful  smell  that  I  con- 
cluded it  was  best  to  let  the  other  six  go." 

13th.  (To  General  D.  C.  Buell.)  Your  despatch  of  yes- 
terday is  received,  in  which  you  say:  "I  have  received  your 
letter  and  General  McClellan's,  and  will  at  once  devote  all  my 
efforts  to  your  views  and  his."  In  the  midst  of  my  many 
cares,  I  have  not  seen  nor  asked  to  see  General  McClellan's 
letter  to  you.  For  my  own  views,  I  have  not  offered  and  do 
not  now  offer  them  as  orders;  and  while  I  am  glad  to  have 
them  respectfully  considered,  I  would  blame  you  to  follow 
them  contrary  to  your  own  clear  judgment,  unless  I  should 
put  them  in  the  form  of  orders.  As  to  General  McClellan's 
views,  you  understand  your  duty  in  regard  to  them  better  than 
I  do. 


age  52]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  273 

With  this  preliminary,  I  state  my  general  idea  of  this  war 
to  be  that  we  have  the  greater  numbers,  and  the  enemy  has 
the  greater  facility  of  concentrating  forces  upon  points  of 
collision;  that  we  must  fail  unless  we  can  find  some  way  of 
making  our  advantage  an  overmatch  for  his;  and  that  this 
can  only  be  done  by  menacing  him  with  superior  forces  at 
different  points  at  the  same  time,  so  that  we  can  safely  attack 
one  or  both  if  he  makes  no  change;  and  if  he  weakens  one  to 
strengthen  the  other,  forbear  to  attack  the  strengthened  one, 
but  seize  and  hold  the  weakened  one,  gaining  so  much. 

Not  only  in  the  West  but  in  the  East  as  well  the  slowness 
of  military  preparation  has  become  unbearable.  Though  Mc- 
Clellan  has  organized  a  great  army  he  still  insists  that  more 
time  must  elapse  before  he  will  be  ready  to  advance.  At  last 
Lincoln  can  not  restrain  his  impatience  any  longer. 

27th.     (President's  General  War  Order  No.   1.) 

Ordered,  That  the  22nd  day  of  February,  1862,  be  the 
day  for  a  general  movement  of  all  the  land  and  naval  forces  of 
the  United  States  against  the  insurgent  forces.  That  especially 
the  army  at  and  about  Fortress  Monroe,  the  army  of  the  Po- 
tomac; the  army  of  Western  Virginia;  the  army  near  Mun- 
fordville,  Kentucky ;  the  army  and  flotilla  at  Cairo,  and  a  naval 
force  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  be  ready  to  move  on  that  day. 

That  all  other  forces,  both  land  and  naval,  with  their  re- 
spective commanders,  obey  existing  orders  for  the  time,  and 
be  ready  to  obey  additional  orders  when  duly  given. 

That  the  heads  of  departments,  and  especially  the  Secre- 
taries of  War  and  the  Navy,  with  all  their  subordinates,  and 
the  general-in-chief,  with  all  other  commanders  and  subordi- 
nates of  land  and  naval  forces,  will  severally  be  held  to  their 
strict  and  full  responsibilities  for  prompt  execution  of  this 
order. 

3  1st.      (President's   Special   War  Order   No.    1.) 


274  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

Ordered,  That  all  the  disposable  force  of  the  army  of  the 
Potomac,  after  providing  safely  for  the  defense  of  Washing- 
ton, be  formed  into  an  expedition  for  the  immediate  object  of 
seizing  and  occupying  a  point  upon  the  railroad  southwestward 
of  what  is  known  as  Manassas  Junction ;  all  details  to  be  in  the 
discretion  of  the  general-in-chief,  and  the  expedition  to  move 
before  or  on  the  22nd  day  of  February  next. 

The  President  and  the  General  disagree  sharply  as  to  what 
plan  of  campaign  should  be  adopted. 

February  3rd.  (To  McClellan.)  You  and  I  have  distinct 
and  different  plans  for  a  movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac— yours  to  be  down  the  Chesapeake,  up  the  Rappahan- 
nock to  Urbana,  and  across  land  to  the  terminus  of  the  railroad 
on  the  York  River;  mine  to  move  directly  to  a  point  on  the 
railroad  southwest  of  Manassas.  If  you  will  give  me  satis- 
factory answers  to  the  following  questions,  I  shall  gladly  yield 
my  plan  to  yours. 

Does  not  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  than  mine? 

Wherein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your  plan  than  mine? 

Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your  plan  than  mine  ? 

In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in  this,  that  it  would 
break  no  great  line  of  the  enemy's  communications,  while  mine 
would  ? 

In  case  of  disaster,  would  not  a  retreat  be  more  difficult 
by  your  plan  than  mine? 

(To  William  H.  Herndon.)  Yours  of  January  30th  just 
received.  Do  just  as  you  say  about  the  money  matter.  As 
you  well  know,  I  have  not  time  to  write  a  letter  of  respectable 
length.     God  bless  you. 

4th.  To  all  whom  these  Presents  shall  come.  Greetings: 
Whereas  it  appears  that  at  a  term  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  275 

United  States  of  America  for  the  Southern  District  of  New 
York,  held  in  the  month  of  November,  A.  d.,  1861,  Nathaniel 
Gordon  was  indicted  and  convicted  for  being  engaged  in  the 
slave-trade,  and  was  by  the  said  court  sentenced  to  be  put  to 
death  by  hanging  by  the  neck,  on  Friday  the  7th  day  of  Feb- 
ruary, a.  d.,  1862 : 

And  whereas  a  large  number  of  respectable  citizens  have 
earnestly  besought  me  to  commute  the  said  sentence  of  the 
said  Nathaniel  Gordon  to  a  term  of  imprisonment  for  life, 
which  application  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  refuse : 

And  whereas  it  has  seemed  to  me  probable  that  the  un- 
successful application  made  for  the  commutation  of  his  sen- 
tence may  have  prevented  the  said  Nathaniel  Gordon  from 
making  the  necessary  preparation  for  the  awful  change  which 
awaits  him; 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  have  granted  and 
do  hereby  grant  unto  him,  the  said  Nathaniel  Gordon,  a  respite 
of  the  above  recited  sentence  until  Friday,  the  twenty-first  day 
of  February,  a.  d.,  1862,  between  the  hours  of  twelve  o'clock 
at  noon  and  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  said  day, 
when  the  said  sentence  shall  be  executed. 

In  granting  this  respite  it  becomes  my  painful  duty  to 
admonish  the  prisoner  that,  relinquishing  all  expectation  of 
pardon  by  human  authority,  he  refer  himself  alone  to  the 
mercy  of  the  common  God  and  Father  of  all  men. 

15th.  First  notable  Federal  victory.  Fort  Donelson  taken 
by  the  Western  army. 

16th.  (To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  You  have  Fort 
Donelson  safe,  unless  Grant  shall  be  overwhelmed  from  out- 
side; to  prevent  which  latter  will,  I  think,  require  all  the  vig- 
ilance, energy,  and  skill  of  yourself  and  Buell,  acting  in  full 


276  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

cooperation.  Columbus  will  not  get  at  Grant,  but  the  force 
from  Bowling  Green  will.  They  hold  the  railroad  from  Bowl- 
ing Green  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Fort  Donelson,  with  the 
bridge  at  Clarksville  undisturbed. 

Could  not  a  cavalry  force  from  General  Thomas  on  the 
Upper  Cumberland  dash  across,  almost  unresisted,  and  cut  the 
railroad  at  or  near  Knoxville,  Tennessee?  In  the  midst  of  a 
bombardment  at  Fort  Donelson  why  could  not  a  gunboat  run 
up  and  destroy  the  bridge  at  Clarksville  ?  Our  success  or  fail- 
ure at  Fort  Donelson  is  vastly  important,  and  I  beg  you  to 
put  your  soul  in  the  effort. 

20th.  The  President's  son,  "Willie"  dies  after  a  short  ill- 
ness. He  was  tenderly  loved  by  his  father  and  for  a  time  fol- 
lowing his  death  Lincoln  finds  the  weight  of  his  duties  all  but 
intolerable. 

At  this  moment  of  extreme  distress  all  the  factions  in  Con- 
gress which  for  one  reason  or  another  disapprove  his  policy 
press  their  own  policies  on  the  President  relentlessly. 

The  Abolition  group  is  particularly  vehement,  ignoring  the 
President's  solicitude  as  to  the  effect  of  their  policy  on  the 
border  states  (page  256).  Lincoln,  presently,  makes  a  move 
that  may  turn  their  flank. 

March  6th.  Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives :  I  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  joint  resolu- 
tion by  your  honorable  body,  which  shall  be  substantially  as 
follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States,  in  order  to  cooperate 
with  any  State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of 
slavery,  ought  to  give  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by 
such  State,  in  its  discretion,  to  compensate  for  the  inconven- 
ience, public  and  private,  produced  by  such  change  of  system. 

If  the  proposition  contained  in  the  resolution  does  not  meet 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  2^ 

the  approval  of  Congress  and  the  country,  there  is  an  end  of 
it.  But  if  it  does  command  such  approval,  I  deem  it  of  im- 
portance that  the  States  and  people  immediately  interested 
should  be  at  once  distinctly  notified  of  the  fact,  so  that  they 
may  begin  to  consider  whether  to  accept  or  reject  it. 

The  point  is  not  that  all  the  States  tolerating  slavery 
would  very  soon,  if  at  all,  initiate  emancipation;  but  that,  while 
the  offer  is  equally  made  to  all,  the  more  Northern  shall,  by 
such  initiation,  make  it  certain  to  the  more  Southern  that  in 
no  event  will  the  former  join  the  latter  in  their  proposed  con- 
federacy. I  say  initiation  because,  in  my  judgment,  gradual 
and  not  sudden  emancipation  is  better  for  all. 

Jth.  Despite  the  War  Order  No.  1,  Lincoln  has  not  com- 
pelled  McClellan  to  go  forward  against  his  judgment.  He  is 
determined  to  let  the  military  expert  decide  the  matter.  But  he 
hopes  that  McClellan  will  not  be  sustained  by  other  generals, 
and  therefore  calls  a  council  of  division  commanders,  twelve 
altogether,  who  are  to  decide  between  his  plan  and  McClellan' s, 
(page  214).  He  promises  them  to  abide  by  their  decision. 
The  council  decides  against  him,  eight  to  four. 

(To  Stanton  who  urges  him  to  disregard  the  council.)  We 
are  civilians.  We  should  justly  be  held  responsible  for  any 
disaster  if  we  set  up  our  opinions  against  those  of  experienced 
military  men  in  the  practical  management  of  a  campaign. 

Lincoln  notices  that  the  four  generals  who  agreed  with  him 
are  of  the  old  army  and  do  not  owe  their  position  to  McClellan. 
This  gives  him  an  idea.  He  sees  a  way  to  enhance  their  influ- 
ence in  the  army  by  reorganizing  it  in  army  corps  and  promot- 
ing these  men  to  the  rank  of  corps  commanders. 

8th.     (President's  General  War  Order  No.  2.)     Ordered: 


27%  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

That  the  Major-General  commanding  the  army  of  the  Potomac 
proceed,  forthwith,  to  organize  that  part  of  the  said  army  des- 
tined to  enter  upon  active  operations  (including  the  reserve, 
but  excluding  the  troops  to  be  left  in  the  fortifications  about 
Washington)  into  four  army  corps. 

The  forces  left  for  the  defense  of  Washington  will  be 
placed  in  command  of  Brigadier-General  James  Wadsworth, 
who  shall  also  be  Military  Governor  of  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

(President's  General  War  Order  No.  3.)  Ordered:  That 
no  change  of  the  base  of  operations  of  the  army  of  the  Po- 
tomac shall  be  made  without  leaving  in  and  about  Washing- 
ton such  a  force  as  in  the  opinion  of  the  general-in-chief  and 
the  commanders  of  all  the  army  corps  shall  leave  said  city 
entirely  secure. 

That  no  more  than  two  army  corps  (about  fifty  thousand 
troops)  of  said  army  of  the  Potomac  shall  be  moved  en  route 
for  a  new  base  of  operations  until  the  navigation  of  the  Po- 
tomac from  Washington  to  the  Chesapeake  Bay  shall  be  freed 
from  enemy's  batteries  and  other  obstructions,  or  until  the 
President  shall  hereafter  give  express  permission. 

pth.  (To  Henry  J.  Raymond.)  I  am  grateful  to  the  New 
York  journals,  and  not  less  so  to  the  Times  than  to  others,  for 
their  kind  notices  of  the  late  special  message  to  Congress. 

Your  paper,  however,  intimates  that  the  proposition, 
though  well  intentioned,  must  fail  on  the  score  of  expense. 
I  do  hope  you  will  reconsider  this.  Have  you  noticed  the  facts 
that  less  than  one-half  day's  cost  of  this  war  would  pay  for  all 
the  slaves  in  Delaware  at  four  dollars  per  head — that  eighty- 
seven  days'  cost  of  this  war  would  pay  for  all  in  Delaware, 
Alary  land,  District  of  Columbia,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  at 
the  same  price?  Were  those  States  to  take  the  step,  do  you 
doubt  that  it  would  shorten  the  war  more  than  eighty-seven 
days,  and  thus  be  an  actual  saving  of  expense? 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  279 

Please  look  at  these  things  and  consider  whether  there 
should  not  be  another  article  in  the  Times. 

While  McClellan  slowly  prepares  to  carry  out  his  flanking 
plan,  General  J.  A.  Johnston  assumes  that  he  will  move  directly 
south  and  skilfully  draws  back  his  army  to  a  stronger  position. 
Lincoln  feels  that  an  opportunity  to  destroy  Johnston  has  been 
lost.  For  once  he  is  angry.  He  takes  from  McClellan  the 
rank  of  commanding  general. 

10th.  In  his  eagerness  for  a  policy  of  compensated  eman- 
cipation Lincoln  calls  together  a  number  of  Border  States  Rep- 
resentatives and  explains  his  position. 

The  President  said  he  did  not  pretend  to  disguise  his  anti- 
slavery  feeling;  that  he  thought  it  was  wrong,  and  should 
continue  to  think  so ;  but  that  was  not  the  question  we  had  to 
deal  with  now.  Slavery  existed,  and  that,  too,  as  well  by  the 
act  of  the  North  as  of  the  South ;  and  in  any  scheme  to  get  rid 
of  it,  the  North  as  well  as  the  South  was  morally  bound  to  do 
its  full  and  equal  share.  He  thought  the  institution  wrong 
and  ought  never  to  have  existed;  but  yet  he  recognized  the 
rights  of  property  which  had  grown  out  of  it,  and  would  re- 
spect those  rights  as  fully  as  similar  rights  in  any  other  prop- 
erty; that  property  can  exist,  and  does  legally  exist. 

nth.  (President's  Special  War  Order  No.  3.)  Major- 
General  McClellan,  having  personally  taken  the  field  as  the 
head  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac  until  otherwise  ordered,  he 
is  relieved  from  the  command  of  the  other  military  depart- 
ments, he  retaining  command  of  the  Department  of  the 
Potomac. 

That  all  the  commanders  of  departments,  after  the  receipt 
of  this  order  by  them,  respectively  report,  severally  and  directly 
to  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  that  prompt,  full,  and  frequent 
reports  will  be  expected  of  all  and  each  of  them. 


280  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

19th.  (To  Doctor  Samuel  Boyd  Tobey.)  A  domestic 
affliction,*  of  which  doubtless  you  are  informed,  has  de- 
layed me  so  long  in  making  acknowledgment  of  the  very  kind 
and  appropriate  letter  signed  on  behalf  and  by  direction  of  a 
meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  Society  of  Friends  for 
New  England,  held  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  the  8th  of 
second  month,  1862,  by  Samuel  Boyce,  clerk,  and  presented  to 
me  by  yourself  and  associates. 

Engaged  as  I  am  in  a  great  war,  I  fear  it  will  be  difficult 
for  the  world  to  understand  how  fully  I  appreciate  the  prin- 
ciples of  peace  inculcated  in  this  letter  and  everywhere  by  the 
Society  of  Friends. 

Grateful  to  the  good  people  you  represent  for  the  prayers 
in  behalf  of  our  common  country,  I  look  forward  hopefully  to 
an  early  end  of  war  and  return  to  peace. 

Radical  Senators  have  convinced  themselves  that  McClellan 
is  not  loyal,  that  he  is  delaying  for  a  purpose,  and  tliat  he 
schemes  to  leave  Washington  unprotected  while  he  removes 
his  army  to  the  Southeast.  They  bring  renewed  pressure  to 
bear  on  Lincoln  demanding  his  interference  in  McClellan* s 
plans. 

31st.  (To  General  G.  B.  McClellan.)  This  morning  I  felt 
constrained  to  order  Blenker's  division  to  Fremont,  (who  has 
been  put  in  command  in  Northern  Virginia)  and  I  write  this 
to  assure  you  I  did  so  with  great  pain,  understanding  that  you 
would  wish  it  otherwise.  If  you  could  know  the  full  pressure  of 
the  case,  I  am  confident  that  you  would  justify  it,  even  beyond 
a  mere  acknowledgment  that  the  commander-in-chief  may  or- 
der what  he  pleases. 

April  1st.  Conference  of  Lincoln  and  McClellan  at  Alex- 
andria, as  McClellan  is  about  to  go  down  the  Potomac  to 
Fortress  Monroe. 


*The  death  of  his  son. 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  281 

3rd.  (To  Stanton.)  The  Secretary  of  War  will  order 
that  one  or  the  other  of  the  corps  of  General  McDowell  and 
General  Sumner  remain  in  front  of  Washington  until  further 
orders  from  the  department,  to  operate  at  or  in  the  direction 
of  Manassas  Junction,  or  otherwise,  as  occasion  may  require ; 
that  the  other  corps  not  so  ordered  to  remain  go  forward  to 
General  McClellan  as  speedily  as  possible;  that  General  Mc- 
Clellan  commence  his  forward  movements  from  his  new  base 
at  once;  and  that  incidental  modifications  as  the  foregoing 
may  render  proper  be  also  made.* 

pth.  (To  Halleck.)  If  the  rigor  of  the  confinement  of 
Magoffin  at  Alton  is  endangering  his  life  or  materially  im- 
pairing his  health  I  wish  it  mitigated  as  far  as  it  can  be  con- 
sistently with  his  safe  detention. 

McClellan,  always  overestimating  the  difficulties  of  his 
task,  complains  to  the  President  continually. 

pth.  (To  McClellan.)  Your  despatches,  complaining  that 
you  are  not  properly  sustained,  while  they  do  not  offend  me, 
do  pain  me  very  much. 

Blenker's  division  was  withdrawn  from  you  before  you 
left  here,  and  you  know  the  pressure  under  which  I  did  it,  and, 
as  I  thought,  acquiesced  in  it — certainly  not  without  re- 
luctance. 

After  you  left,  I  ascertained  that  less  than  twenty  thousand 
unorganized  men,  without  a  single  field-battery,  were  all  you 


*The  movements  of  McDowell  are  the  central  issue  in  the  strange  con- 
troversy which  now  ensues  between  the  President  and  McClellan.  A  review 
of  the  facts  in  anticipation  will  be  helpful ;  McClellan  advanced  westward 
from  Fortress  Monroe  expecting  McDowell  to  move  south  from  Washing- 
ton and  join  him  before  Richmond;  Johnston  sent  Jackson  into  the  valley 
of  Virginia  to  appear  to  threaten  Washington  hoping  this  would  stop  the 
advances  of  McDowell ;  Lincoln  fell  into  his  trap  and  sent  McDowell  against 
Jackson ;  Johnston  attacked  and  checked  McClellan  on  the  Chickahominy ;  a 
month  later  while  McDowell  was  still  in  the  vicinity  of  Washington  Jackson 
slipped  across  Virginia  and  brought  his  forces  into  the  terrible  battle  of  the 
Seven  Days  which  ended  McClellan's  campaign. 


282  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

designed  to  be  left  for  the  defense  of  Washington  and 
Manassas  Junction,  and  part  of  this  even  was  to  go  to  Gen- 
eral Llooker's  old  position.  General  Banks'  corps,  once  de- 
signed for  Manassas  Junction,  was  diverted  and  tied  up  on 
the  line  of  Winchester  and  Strasburg,  and  could  not  leave  it 
without  again  exposing  the  upper  Potomac  and  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad.  This  presented,  or  would  present,  when 
McDowell  and  Sumner  should  be  gone,  a  great  temptation  to 
the  enemy  to  turn  back  from  the  Rappahannock  and  sack 
Washington.  My  explicit  order  that  Washington  should,  by 
the  judgment  of  all  the  commanders  of  corps,  be  left  entirely 
secure,  had  been  neglected.  It  was  precisely  this  that  drove 
me  to  detain  McDowell. 

10th.  (To  R.  Yates  and  William  Butler.)  I  fully  ap- 
preciate General  Pope's  splendid  achievements,  with  their  in- 
valuable results,  but  you  must  know  that  major-generalships 
in  the  regular  army  are  not  as  plentiful  as  blackberries. 

Abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

16th.  The  act  entitled  "An  act  for  the  release  of  certain 
persons  held  to  service  for  labor  in  the  District  of  Columbia" 
has  this  day  been  approved  and  signed. 

I  have  never  doubted  the  constitutional  authority  of  Con- 
gress to  abolish  slavery  in  this  District ;  and  I  have  ever  desired 
to  see  the  national  capital  freed  from  the  institution  in  some 
satisfactory  way.  Hence  there  has  never  been  in  my  mind  any 
question  upon  the  subject  except  the  one  of  expediency,  aris- 
ing in  view  of  all  the  circumstances.  If  there  be  matters 
within  and  about  this  act  which  might  have  taken  a  course  or 
shape  more  satisfactory  to  my  judgment,  I  do  not  attempt  to 
specify  them.  I  am  gratified  that  the  two  principles  of  com- 
pensation and  colonization  are  both  recognized  and  practically 
applied  in  the  act. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  283 

31st.  Fredericksburg  is  evacuated  and  the  bridges  de- 
stroyed by  the  enemy,  and  a  small  part  of  McDowell's  com- 
mand  occupies  this  side  of  the  Rappahannock,  opposite  the 
town.    He  purposes  moving  his  whole  force  to  that  point. 

May  1st.  In  answer  to  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  in  re- 
lation to  Brigadier-General  Stone,  I  have  the  honor  to  state 
that  he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  under  my  general  author- 
ity, and  upon  evidence  which,  whether  he  be  guilty  or  innocent, 
required,  as  appears  to  me,  such  proceedings  to  be  had  against 
him  for  the  public  safety. 

I  deem  it  incompatible  with  the  public  interest,  as  also, 
perhaps,  unjust  to  General  Stone,  to  make  a  more  particular 
statement  of  the  evidence.  He  had  not  been  tried  because,  in 
the  state  of  military  operations  at  the  time  of  his  arrest  and 
since,  the  officers  to  constitute  a  court-martial  and  for  wit- 
nesses could  not  be  withdrawn  from  duty  without  serious  in- 
jury to  the  service.  He  will  be  allowed  a  trial  without  any 
unnecessary  delay;  the  charges  and  specifications  will  be  fur- 
nished him  in  due  season,  and  every  facility  for  his  defense 
will  be  afforded  him  by  the  War  Department. 

6th.  (To  Evangelical  Lutherans.)  Gentlemen:  I  wel- 
come here  the  representatives  of  the  Evangelical  Lutherans  of 
the  United  States.  I  accept  with  gratitude  their  assurances  of 
the  sympathy  and  support  of  that  enlightened,  influential,  and 
loyal  class  of  my  fellow-citizens  in  an  important  crisis  which 
involves,  in  my  judgment,  not  only  the  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erties of  our  own  dear  land,  but  in  a  large  degree  the  civil 
and  religious  liberties  of  mankind  in  many  countries  and 
through  many  ages. 

pth.  (To  AlcClellan.)  I  have  just  assisted  the  Secretary 
of  War  in  framing  part  of  a  despatch  to  you  relating  to  army 
corps,  which  despatch  of  course  will  have  reached  you  before 
this  will. 


284  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  to  you  privately  on  this  subject. 
I  ordered  the  army  corps  organization  not  only  on  the  unani- 
mous opinion  of  the  twelve  generals  whom  you  had 
selected  and  assigned  as  generals  of  division,  but  also  on 
the  unanimous  opinion  of  every  military  man  I  could  get  an 
opinion  from  (and  every  modern  military  book),  yourself  only 
excepted.  Of  course  I  did  not  on  my  own  judgment  pretend 
to  understand  the  subject.  I  now  think  it  indispensable  for 
you  to  know  how  your  struggle  against  it  is  received  in 
quarters  which  we  can  not  entirely  disregard.  It  is  looked 
upon  as  merely  an  effort  to  pamper  one  or  two  pets  and  to 
persecute  and  degrade  their  supposed  rivals.  I  have  had  no 
word  from  Sumner,  Heintzelman,  or  Keyes.  The  commanders 
of  these  corps  are  of  course  the  three  highest  officers  with 
you,  but  I  am  constantly  told  that  you  have  no  consultation  or 
communication  with  them;  that  you  consult  and  communicate 
with  nobody  but  General  Fitz-John  Porter  and  perhaps  Gen- 
eral Franklin.  I  do  not  say  these  complaints  are  true  or  just, 
but  at  all  events  it  is  proper  you  should  know  of  their  ex- 
istence. Do  the  commanders  of  corps  disobey  your  orders  in 
anything  ? 

When  you  relieved  General  Hamilton  of  his  command  the 
other  day,  you  thereby  lost  the  confidence  of  at  least  one  of 
your  best  friends  in  the  Senate.  And  here  let  me  say,  not 
as  applicable  to  you  personally,  that  senators  and  represen- 
tatives speak  to  me  in  their  places  as  they  please  without  ques- 
tion, and  that  officers  of  the  Army  must  cease  addressing 
insulting  letters  to  them  for  taking  no  greater  liberty  with  them. 

General  Hunter  takes  it  upon  himself  to  imitate  Fremont 
and  declares  free  slaves  that  have  come  within  his  lines. 

iyth.  No  commanding  general  shall  do  such  a  thing 
(issue  an  order  of  military  emancipation),  upon  my  respon- 
sibility, without  consulting  me. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  285 

18th.  2  p.  m.  (To  McClellan.)  The  President  is  not 
willing  to  uncover  the  capital  entirely,  and  it  is  believed  that, 
even  if  this  were  prudent,  it  would  require  more  time  to  effect 
a  junction  between  your  army  and  that  of  the  Rappahannock 
by  the  way  of  the  Potomac  and  York  rivers  than  by  a  land 
march. 

In  order,  therefore,  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  attack 
upon  Richmond  at  the  earliest  moment,  General  McDowell  has 
been  ordered  to  march  upon  that  city  by  the  shortest  route.* 

He  is  ordered,  keeping  himself  always  in  position  to  save 
the  capital  from  all  possible  attack,  so  to  operate  as  to  put  his 
left  wing  in  communication  with  your  right  wing,  and  you 
are  instructed  to  co-operate  so  as  to  establish  this  communi- 
cation as  soon  as  possible. 

By  extending  your  right  wing  to  the  north  of  Richmond,  it 
is  believed  that  this  communication  can  be  safely  established 
either  north  or  south  of  the  Pamunkey  river. 

ipth.  (Proclamation.)  Whereas  there  appears  in  the 
public  prints  what  purports  to  be  a  proclamation  of  Major- 
General  Hunter,  in  the  words  and  figures  following,  to-wit : 

General  Orders  No.  11. 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  South, 
Hilton  Head,  Port  Royal,  S.  C.,  May  9,  1862. 

The  three  States  of  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina 
comprising  the  Military  Department  of  the  South,f  having 
deliberately  declared  themselves  no  longer  under  the  protection 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  having  taken  up  arms 
against  the  said  United  States,  it  became  a  military  necessity 
to  declare  martial  law. 

This  was  accordingly  done  on  the  25th  day  of  April,  1862. 
Slavery  and  martial  law  in  a  free  country  are  altogether  in- 


*See  note,  p.  281. 

t Coast  operations  were  being  carried  on  from  a  base  established  by  the 
Navy  at  Hilton  Head.  The  Department  of  the  South  was  relatively  a 
fiction. 


286  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

compatible;  the  persons  in  these  three  States — Georgia,  Flor- 
ida, and  South  Carolina — heretofore  held  as  slaves,  are  there- 
fore declared  forever  free. 

Signed,  David  Hunter: 

Major-General  Commanding. 
(Official) 

Edward  W.  Smith,  Acting  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 

And,  whereas,  the  same  is  producing  some  excitement  and 
misunderstanding,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  proclaim  and  declare  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  had  no  knowledge,  information,  or 
belief  of  an  intention  on  the  part  of  General  Hunter  to  issue 
such  a  proclamation ;  nor  has  it  yet  any  authentic  information 
that  the  document  is  genuine;  and,  further,  that  neither  Gen- 
eral Hunter,  nor  any  other  commander  or  person,  has  been 
authorized  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  make 
proclamation  declaring  the  slaves  of  any  State  free,  and  that 
the  supposed  proclamation  now  in  question,  whether  genuine 
or  false,  is  altogether  void  so  far  as  respects  such  a  declaration. 
I  further  make  known  that,  whether  it  be  competent  for  me, 
as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  to  declare  the 
slaves  of  any  State  or  States  free ;  and  whether  at  any  time,  in 
any  case,  it  shall  have  become  a  necessity  indispensable  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  Government  to  exercise  such  supposed 
power,  are  questions  which,  under  my  responsibility,  I  reserve 
to  myself,  and  which  I  can  not  feel  justified  in  leaving  to  the 
decision  of  commanders  in  the  field  .  .  .  On  the  sixth  day 
of  March  last,  by  special  message,  I  recommended  to  Congress 
the  adoption  of  a  joint  resolution  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate  with 
any  State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery, 
giving  to  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State, 
in  its  discretion,  to  compensate  for  the  inconvenience,  public 
and  private,  produced  by  such  change  of  system. 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  287 

The  resolution  in  the  language  above  quoted  was  adopted 
by  large  majorities  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  and  now 
stands  an  authentic,  definite,  and  solemn  proposal  of  the 
Nation  to  the  States  and  people  most  immediately  interested  in 
the  subject  matter.  To  the  people  of  those  States  I  now  ear- 
nestly appeal.  I  do  not  argue — I  beseech  you  to  make  argu- 
ments for  yourselves.  You  can  not,  if  you  would,  be  blind  to 
the  signs  of  the  times. 

I  beg  of  you  a  calm  and  enlarged  consideration  of  them, 
ranging,  if  it  may  be,  far  above  personal  and  partisan  politics. 

This  proposal  makes  common  cause  for  a  common  object, 
casting  no  reproaches  upon  any.  It  acts  not  the  Pharisee.  The 
change  it  contemplates  would  come  gently  as  the  dew  of 
Heaven,  not  rending  or  wrecking  anything.  Will  you  not 
embrace  it?  So  much  good  has  not  been  done,  by  one  effort, 
in  all  past  time,  as  in  the  providence  of  God  it  is  now  your 
high  privilege  to  do.  May  the  vast  future  not  have  to  lament 
that  you  have  neglected  it. 

Jackson  opens  his  famous  "Valley  Campaign/'  aiming  to 
do  just  what  he  succeeds  in  doing — terrify  Washington  and 
prevent  the  concentration  of  the  Federal  forces  before  Rich- 
mond. Jackson  s  movements  threaten  the  commands  of  Gen- 
eral Banks  and  General  Fremont. 

24th.  (To  McClellan.)  I  left  General  McDowell's  camp 
at  dark  last  evening.  Shields'  command  is  there,  but  it  is 
so  worn  that  he  can  not  move  before  Monday  morning,  the 
26th.  We  have  so  thinned  our  line  to  get  troops  for  other 
places,  that  it  was  broken  yesterday  at  Front  Royal,  with  a 
probable  loss  to  us  of  one  regiment  infantry,  two  companies 
cavalry,  putting  General  Banks  in  some  peril. 

The  enemy's  forces  under  General  Anderson  now  opposing 
General  McDowell's  advance,  have,  as  their  line  of  supply  and 
retreat,  the  road  to  Richmond. 


288  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

If,  in  conjunction  with  McDowell's  movement  against  An- 
derson, you  could  send  a  force  from  your  right  to  cut  off  the 
enemy's  supplies  from  Richmond,  preserve  the  railroad  bridges 
across  the  two  forks  of  the  Pamunkey,  and  intercept  the 
enemy's  retreat,  you  will  prevent  the  army  now  opposed  to 
you  from  receiving  an  accession  of  numbers  of  nearly  15,000 
men;  and  if  you  succeed  in  saving  the  bridges  you  will  secure 
a  line  of  railroad  for  supplies  in  addition  to  the  one  you  now 
have.  Can  you  not  do  this  almost  as  well  as  not  while  you 
are  building  the  Chickahominy  bridges?  McDowell  and 
Shields  both  say  they  can,  and  positively  will,  move  Monday 
morning.     I  wish  you  to  move  cautiously  and  safely. 

You  will  have  command  of  McDowell,  after  he  joins  you, 
precisely  as  you  indicated  in  your  long  despatch  to  us  of  the 
2 1  st. 

1  p.  M.  Geary  reports  Jackson  with  20,000  moving  from 
Ashby's  Gap  by  the  Little  River  turnpike,  through  Aldie, 
toward  Centerville.  This,  he  says,  is  reliable.  He  is  also  in- 
formed of  large  forces  south  of  him.  We  know  a  force  of 
some  15,000  broke  up  Saturday  night  from  in  front  of  Fred- 
ericksburg and  went  we  know  not  where. 

4  p.  m.  (To  General  J.  C.  Fremont.)  The  exposed  con- 
dition of  General  Banks  makes  his  immediate  relief  a  point 
of  paramount  importance.  You  are  therefore  directed  by  the 
President  to  move  against  Jackson  at  Harrisonburg,  and 
operate  against  the  enemy  in  such  way  as  to  relieve  Banks. 
This  movement  must  be  made  immediately.  You  will  acknowl- 
edge the  receipt  of  this  order,  and  specify  the  hour  it  is  re- 
ceived by  you. 

4  p.  m.  (To  McClellan.)  In  consequence  of  General 
Banks'  critical  position,  I  have  been  compelled  to  suspend  Gen- 
eral McDowell's  movements  to  join  you.*  The  enemy  are 
making  a  desperate  push  on  Harper's  Ferry,  and  we  are  trying 


:See  note,  p.  281. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  289 

to  throw  General  Fremont's  force  and  part  of  General  Mc- 
Dowell's in  their  rear. 

5  p.  m.  (To  General  Samuel  T.  McDowell.)  General  Fre- 
mont has  been  ordered  by  telegraph  to  move  from  Franklin 
on  Harrisonburg  to  relieve  General  Banks  and  capture  or  de- 
stroy Jackson's  and  Ewell's  forces.  You  are  instructed,  laying 
aside  for  the  present  the  movement  on  Richmond,  to  put  20,000 
men  in  motion  at  once  for  the  Shenandoah,  moving  on  the 
line  or  in  advance  of  the  line  of  the  Manassas  Gap  Railroad. 
Your  object  will  be  to  capture  the  forces  of  Jackson  and  Ewell, 
either  in  cooperation  with  General  Fremont,  or,  in  case  want 
of  supplies  or  of  transportation  interferes  with  his  movements, 
it  is  believed  that  the  force  which  you  move  will  be  sufficient 
to  accomplish  this  object  alone.  The  information  thus  far  re- 
ceived here  makes  it  probable  that  if  the  enemy  operate  actively 
against  General  Banks,  you  will  not  be  able  to  count  upon 
much  assistance  from  him,  but  may  even  have  to  release  him. 
Reports  received  this  moment  are  that  Banks  is  fighting  with 
Ewell  eight  miles  from  Winchester. 

(To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  Several  despatches  from 
Assistant  Secretary  Scott  and  one  from  Governor  Morton 
asking  reinforcements  for  you  have  been  received.  I  beg  you 
to  be  assured  we  do  the  best  we  can.  I  mean  to  cast  no  blame 
when  I  tell  you  each  of  our  commanders  along  our  line  from 
Richmond  to  Corinth  supposed  himself  to  be  confronted  by 
numbers  superior  to  his  own.  Under  this  pressure  we  thinned 
the  line  on  the  upper  Potomac,  until  yesterday  it  was  broken 
at  heavy  loss  to  us,  and  General  Banks  put  in  great  peril,  out 
of  which  he  is  not  yet  extricated,  and  may  be  actually  captured. 
We  need  men  to  repair  this  breach,  and  have  them  not  at  hand. 
My  dear  general,  I  feel  justified  to  rely  very  much  on  you. 
I  believe  you  and  the  brave  officers  and  men  with  you  can 
and  will  get  the  victory  at  Corinth. 

2  p.  m.     (To  McClellan.)     The  enemy  is  moving  north  in 


290  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

sufficient  force  to  drive  General  Banks  before  him,  in  pre- 
cisely what  force  we  can  not  tell.  He  is  also  threatening  Lees- 
burg  and  Geary,  on  the  Manassas  Gap  Railroad,  from  both 
north  and  south,  in  precisely  what  force  we  can  not  tell.  I 
think  the  movement  is  a  general  and  concerted  one,*  such  as 
would  not  be  if  he  was  acting  upon  the  purpose  of  a  very  des- 
perate defense  of  Richmond.  I  think  the  time  is  near  when 
you  must  either  attack  Richmond  or  give  up  the  job  and  come 
to  the  defense  of  Washington. 

Let  me  hear  from  you  instantly. 

(To  General  McClellan.)  Can  you  not  cut  the  Aquia  Creek 
railroad?  Also,  what  impression  have  you  as  to  intrenched 
works  for  you  to  contend  with  in  front  of  Richmond?  Can 
you  get  near  enough  to  throw  shells  into  the  city? 

2/th.  (To  General  Fremont.)  I  see  that  you  are  at 
Moore  field.  You  were  expressly  ordered  to  march  to  Har- 
risonburg.    What  does  this  mean? 

28th.  (To  Fremont.)  The  President  directs  you  to  halt 
at  Moore  field  and  await  orders,  unless  you  hear  of  the  enemy 
being  in  the  general  direction  of  Romney,  in  which  case  you 
will  move  upon  him. 

(To  McDowell.)  You  say  General  Geary's  scouts  report 
that  they  find  no  enemy  this  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  Neither 
do  I.     Have  they  been  to  the  Blue  Ridge  looking  for  them? 

5:40  p.  m.  (To  McDowell.)  I  think  the  evidence  now 
preponderates  that  Ewell  and  Jackson  are  still  about  Winches- 
ter. Assuming  this,  it  is  for  you  a  question  of  legs.  Put  in 
all  the  speed  you  can.  I  have  told  Fremont  as  much,  and 
directed  him  to  drive  at  them  as  fast  as  possible.  By  the  way, 
I  suppose  you  know  Fremont  has  got  up  to  Moore  field,  in- 
stead of  going  to  Harrisonburg. 


*This  was  a  complete  misapprehension  and  shows  how  entirely  the 
Confederate  ruse  had  succeeded.  Jackson  had  with  him  only  some  15,000 
men. 


ONE   HEAD  BETTER  THAN   TWO. 


Lon,    \<,-...,..n     "I  SAY,  HIH.VT  WE   BETTER  TELL  OIK  fR!*XD  THERE  To  LEAVE  OFF  MAKING  4 

Ft**!,  IM    il!MS,U  >" 

tau»>*v.  "H'.M,  WELL,  SUWOSX  VOU  TALE  TO  HIM  YOI'RSELE.    HE'S  A  GRJEAT  ADMIRER  OF  YOl'RS, 

'  KMitt."  — 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  291 

The  audacity  of  Jackson's  swift  movements  completely 
mystify  his  antagonists.  He  strikes,  disappears,  and  they 
know  not  what  to  do.    And  now  Johnston  reaps  his  advantage. 

May  sist-Jnne  1st.  Battle  of  Seven  Pines,  or  Fair  Oaks. 
McClellan  is  brought  to  a  standstill  within  four  miles  of  Rich- 
mond. General  Johnston,  wounded,  is  succeeded  by  General 
Lee. 

June  1st.  (To  McClellan.)  You  are  probably  engaged 
with  the  enemy.  I  suppose  he  made  the  attack.  Stand  well  on 
your  guard,  hold  all  your  ground,  or  yield  only  inch  by 
inch  and  in  good  order.  This  morning  we  merge  General 
Wool's  department  into  yours,  giving  you  command  of  the 
whole,  and  sending  General  Dix  to  Fort  Monroe  and  General 
Wool  to  Fort  McHenry. 

We  also  send  General  Sigel  to  report  to  you  for  duty. 

But  Jackson  has  not  finished  his  work  in  the  valley.  Re- 
newed alarm  at  Washington. 

(To  McClellan.)  Shields'  advance  came  in  collision  with 
part  of  the  enemy  yesterday  evening  six  miles  from  Front 
Royal,  in  a  direction  between  Winchester  and  Strasburg,  driv- 
ing them  back,  capturing  a  few  prisoners  and  one  rifled  can- 
non. Firing  in  that  direction  to-day,  heard  both  from  Harper's 
Ferry  and  Front  Royal,  indicates  a  probability  that  Fremont 
has  met  the  enemy. 

We  have  concluded  to  send  General  Sigel  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  so  that  what  I  telegraphed  you  about  him  this  morning 
is  revoked.     Dix  goes  to  Fort  Monroe  to-night. 

3rd.  (To  McClellan.)  With  these  continuous  rains  I  am 
very  anxious  about  the  Chickahominy — so  close  in  your  rear 
and  crossing  your  line  of  communication.     Please  look  to  it. 

6th.     (To  McDowell.)     The  President  directs  that  Mc- 


292  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

Call's  division  be  sent  by  water  to  Major-General  McClellan 
immediately,  and  that  you  place  such  force  at  Fredericksburg 
by  the  time  McCall  leaves  there  as  may,  in  your  judgment,  be 
necessary  to  hold  that  place. 

In  respect  to  the  operations  of  the  residue  of  your  force, 
the  President  reserves  directions,  to  be  given  as  soon  as  he 
determines. 

pth.  (To  General  N.  P.  Banks.)  We  are  arranging  a 
general  plan  for  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  this  you  will  move  your  main  force  to  the  Shen- 
andoah at  or  opposite  Front  Royal  as  soon  as  possible. 

10th.  (To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.)  I 
transmit  to  Congress  a  copy  of  a  treaty  for  the  suppression 
of  the  African  slave  trade,  between  the  United  States  and  her 
Britannic  Majesty,  signed  in  this  city  on  the  7th  of  April  last, 
and  the  ratifications  of  which  were  exchanged  at  London  on 
the  20th  ultimo. 

15th.  (To  McClellan.)  The  night  between  your  two 
late  battles  of  Saturday  and  Sunday  I  went  earnestly  to  work 
to  find  a  way  of  putting  General  Wool's  force  under  your  con- 
trol without  wounding  any  one's  feelings.  But,  after  all,  Gen- 
eral Dix  was  a  little  hurt  at  being  taken  from  an  independent 
command  and  put  in  a  dependent  one.  I  could  not  help  this 
without  giving  up  the  principal  object  of  the  move.  So  soon 
as  you  can  (which  I  do  not  expect  is  yet),  I  wish  you  to  give 
me  the  benefit  of  your  suggestions  as  to  how  an  independent 
command  can  be  given  him  without  detriment.  The  Secretary 
of  War  has  turned  over  to  me  your  despatch  about  sending 
McDowell  to  you  by  water  instead  of  by  land.  I  now  fear  he 
can  not  get  to  you  either  way  in  time.  Shields'  division  has 
got  so  terribly  out  of  shape,  out  at  elbows,  and  out  at  toes,  that 
it  will  require  a  long  time  to  get  it  in  again.  I  expect  to  see 
McDowell  within  a  day  or  two,  when  I  will  again  talk  with 
him  about  the  mode  of  moving. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  293 

After  a  fortnight  of  heavy  rain,  clearing  weather  makes  it 
possible  for  Lee  to  attack  McClellan.  He  and  Davis  decide  upon 
another  rase  for  the  purpose  of  further  alarming  Washington 
and  increasing  the  nervousness  of  McClellan,  already  near  the 
point  of  exhaustion.  It  is  intended  to  give  the  impression  that 
large  reinforcements  are  moving  to  the  Valley  of  Virginia. 
McClellan  is  deceived.  He  concludes  that  the  Confederates 
have  great  reserves  of  men.    But  Lincoln  is  not  deceived. 

igth.  (To  McClellan.)  Yours  of  last  night  just  received 
and  for  which  I  thank  you.  If  large  reinforcements  are  going 
from  Richmond  to  Jackson  it  proves  one  of  two  things,  either 
that  they  are  very  strong  at  Richmond  or  do  not  mean  to 
defend  the  place  desperately. 

On  reflection,  I  do  not  see  how  reinforcements  from  Rich- 
mond to  Jackson  could  be  in  Gordonsville,  as  reported  by  the 
Frenchman  and  your  deserters.  Have  not  all  been  sent  to 
deceive  ? 

(To  Fremont.)  We  have  no  indefinite  power  of  sending 
reinforcements ;  so  that  we  are  compelled  rather  to  consider  the 
proper  disposal  of  the  forces  we  have  than  of  those  we  could 
wish  to  have.  We  may  be  able  to  send  you  some  dribs  by 
degrees,  but  I  do  not  believe  we  can  do  more.  As  you  alone 
beat  Jackson  last  Sunday,  I  argue  that  you  are  stronger  than 
he  is  to-day,  unless  he  has  been  reinforced;  and  that  he  can 
not  have  been  materially  reinforced,  because  such  reinforce- 
ment could  only  have  come  from  Richmond,  and  he  is  much 
more  likely  to  go  to  Richmond  than  Richmond  is  to  come  to 
him.  Neither  is  very  likely.  I  think  Jackson's  game — his 
assigned  work — now  is  to  magnify  the  accounts  of  his  num- 
bers and  reports  of  his  movements,  and  thus  by  constant 
alarms  keep  three  or  four  times  as  many  of  our  troops  away 
from  Richmond  as  his  own  force  amounts  to.  Thus  he  helps 
his  friends  at  Richmond  three  or  four  times  as  much  as  if  he 
were  there.    Our  game  is  not  to  allow  this. 


294  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

20th.  (To  McClellan.)  We  have  this  morning  sent  you 
a  despatch  of  General  Sigel  corroborative  of  the  proposition 
that  Jackson  is  being  reinforced  from  Richmond.  This  may 
be  reality,  and  yet  may  only  be  contrivance  for  deception,  and 
to  determine  which  is  perplexing.  If  we  knew  it  was  not  true, 
we  could  send  you  some  more  force ;  but  as  the  case  stands  we 
do  not  think  we  safely  can.  Still,  we  will  watch  the  signs  and 
do  so  if  possible. 

24th.  Lincoln,  accompanied  by  General  Pope,  suddenly 
makes  a  flying  visit  to  West  Point,  where  General  Scott  is  liv- 
ing in  retirement.  Scott  advises  1,  that  the  forces  under  Fre- 
mont and  Banks  are  adequate  to  protect  Washington;  2,  that 
forces  stationed  at  Fredericksburg  are  entirely  out  of  position; 
3,  that  a  victory  before  Richmond  would  end  the  war. 

26th.  Washington.  Ordered— 1.  The  forces  under  Ma- 
jor-Generals Fremont,  Banks,  and  McDowell,  including  the 
troops  now  under  Brigadier-General  Sturgis  at  Washington, 
shall  be  consolidated  and  form  one  army,  to  be  called  the  Army 
of  Virginia. 

2.  The  command  of  the  Army  of  Virginia  is  especially 
assigned  to  Major-General  John  Pope,  as  commanding  gen- 
eral.* 

3.  The  Army  of  Virginia  shall  operate  in  such  manner  as 
while  protecting  western  Virginia  and  the  national  capital 
from  danger  or  insult,  it  shall  in  the  speediest  manner  attack 
and  overcome  the  rebel  forces  under  Jacksonf  and  Ewell, 
threaten  the   enemy  in  the  direction   of   Charlottesville,   and 


*Pope  had  made  a  popular  reputation  by  his  services  on  the  Mississippi. 
Having  been  called  to  Washington  on  military  business  he  ingratiated  him- 
self with  the  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  by  insinuations  against 
McClellan.  Lincoln  took  him  up  and,  for  a  time,  appears  to  have  believed 
in  him. 

tAt  this  moment,  Jackson,  having  accomplished  his  purpose  in  the  Val- 
ley, had  secretly  withdrawn  his  whole  force  to  the  vicinity  of  Richmond. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  295 

render  the  most  effective  aid  to  relieve  General  McClellan  and 
capture  Richmond. 

Lee  attacks  McClellan  at  Mechanicsville,  opening  the  Seven 
Days  before  Richmond. 

27th.  (To  McClellan.)  Your  three  despatches  of  yester- 
day in  relation  to  the  affair,  ending  with  the  statement  that 
you  completely  succeeded  in  making  your  point,  are  very  grat- 
ifying. 

The  later  one  of  6:15,  suggesting  the  probability  of  your 
being  overwhelmed  by  200,000,*  and  talking  of  where  the 
responsibility  will  belong,  pains  me  very  much.  I  give  you 
all  I  can,  and  act  on  the  presumption  that  you  will  do  the  best 
you  can  with  what  you  have,  while  you  continue,  ungenerously, 
I  think,  to  assume  that  I  could  give  you  more  if  I  would.  I 
have  omitted  and  shall  omit  no  opportunity  to  send  you  re- 
inforcements whenever  I  possibly  can. 

P.  S.  General  Pope  thinks  if  you  fall  back  it  would  be 
much  better  toward  York  River  than  toward  the  James.  As 
Pope  now  has  charge  of  the  capital,  please  confer  with  him 
through  the  telegraph. 

28th.  (To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  The  enemy  have 
concentrated  in  such  force  at  Richmond  as  to  render  it  abso- 
lutely necessary,  in  the  opinion  of  the  President,  for  you  im- 
mediately to  detach  25,000  of  your  force,  and  forward  it  by 
the  nearest  and  quickest  route  by  way  of  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington, to  Richmond.  It  is  believed  that  the  quickest  route, 
would  be  by  way  of  Columbus,  Kentucky,  and  up  the  Ohio 
River.  But  in  detaching  your  force  the  President  directs  that 
it  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  you  to  hold  your  ground 
and  not  interfere  with  the  movement  against  Chattanooga  and 


^Characteristic  of   McClellan;   his   force  of    109,000  was  opposed   by 
87,000  under  Lee. 


296  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

East  Tennessee.  This  condition  being  observed,  the  forces  to 
be  detached  and  the  routes  they  are  to  be  sent  are  left  to  your 
own  judgment. 

The  direction  to  send  these  forces  immediately  is  rendered 
imperative  by  a  serious  reverse  suffered  by  General  McClellan 
before  Richmond  yesterday,  the  full  extent  of  which  is  not  yet 
known. 

(To  Major-General  Burnside.)  We  have  intelligence  that 
General  McClellan  has  been  attacked  in  large  force  and  com- 
pelled to  fall  back  toward  the  James  River.  We  are  not  ad- 
vised of  his  exact  condition,  but  the  President  directs  that  you 
shall  send  him  all  the  reinforcements  from  your  command  to 
the  James  River  that  you  can  safely  do  without  abandoning 
your  own  position.  Let  it  be  infantry  entirely,  as  he  said  yes- 
terday that  he  had  cavalry  enough. 

(To  McClellan.)  Save  your  army,  at  all  events.  Will 
send  reinforcements  as  fast  as  we  can.  Of  course  they  can 
not  reach  you  to-day,  to-morrow,  or  next  day.  I  have  not 
said  you  were  ungenerous  for  saying  you  needed  reinforce- 
ments. I  thought  you  were  ungenerous  in  assuming  that  I  did 
not  send  them  as  fast  as  I  could.  I  feel  any  misfortune  to  you 
and  your  army  quite  as  keenly  as  you  feel  it  yourself.  If  you 
have  had  a  drawn  battle,  or  a  repulse,  it  is  the  price  we  pay 
for  the  enemy  not  being  in  Washington.  We  protected  Wash- 
ington, and  the  enemy  concentrated  on  you.  Had  we  stripped 
Washington,  he  would  have  been  upon  us  before  the  troops 
could  have  gotten  to  you.  Less  than  a  week  ago  you  notified 
us  that  reinforcements  were  leaving  Richmond  to  come  in 
front  of  us.  It  is  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  neither  you  nor 
the  government  is  to  blame.  Please  tell  at  once  the  present 
condition  and  aspect  of  things. 

Convinced  that  McClellan  is  suffering  a  terrible  defeat  and 
that  the  Federal  fortunes  are  in  desperate  plight,   Lincoln, 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  297 

nevertheless,  fears  to  make  an  open  appeal  for  fresh  troops  lest 
a  general  panic  ensue.  He  sends  Seward  on  a  confidential 
mission  to  Governors  of  States  arming  him  with  a  statement 
of  facts  as  the  President  sees  them. 

My  view  of  the  present  condition  of  the  war  is  about  as 
follows : 

The  evacuation  of  Corinth  and  our  delay  by  the  flood  in 
Chickahominy  have  enabled  the  enemy  to  concentrate  too  much 
force  in  Richmond  for  McClellan  to  successfully  attack.  In 
fact  there  soon  will  be  no  substantial  rebel  force  anywhere  else. 
But  if  we  send  all  the  force  from  here  to  McClellan,  the  enemy 
will,  before  we  can  know  of  it,  send  a  force  from  Richmond 
and  take  Washington.  Or  if  a  large  part  of  the  western  army 
be  brought  here  to  McClellan,  they  will  let  us  have  Richmond, 
and  retake  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  etc.  What  should 
be  done  is  to  hold  what  we  have  in  the  West,  open  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  take  Chattanooga  and  East  Tennessee  without 
more.  A  reasonable  force  should  in  every  event  be  kept  about 
Washington  for  its  protection.  Then  let  the  country  give  us 
100,000  new  troops  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  which,  added 
to  McClellan,  directly  or  indirectly,  will  take  Richmond  with- 
out endangering  any  other  place  which  we  now  hold,  and  will 
substantially  end  the  war.  I  expect  to  maintain  this  contest 
until  successful,  or  till  I  die,  or  am  conquered,  or  my  term  ex- 
pires, or  Congress  or  the  country  forsake  me ;  and  I  would 
publicly  appeal  to  the  country  for  this  new  force  were  it  not  that 
I  fear  a  general  panic  and  stampede  would  follow,  so  hard  it 
is  to  have  a  thing  understood  as  it  really  is.  I  think  the  new 
force  should  be  all,  or  nearly  all,  infantry,  principally  because 
such  can  be  raised  most  cheaply  and  quickly. 

(To  General  J.  A.  Dix.)  Communication  with  McClellan 
by  White  House  is  cut  off.  Strain  every  nerve  to  open  com- 
munication with  him  by  James  River,  or  any  other  way  you 
can. 


298  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

30th.  We  are  yet  without  communication  with  General 
McClellan,  and  this  absence  of  news  is  our  point  of  anxiety. 
Up  to  the  latest  point  to  which  we  are  posted  he  effected  every- 
thing in  such  exact  accordance  with  his  plan,  contingently 
announced  to  us  before  the  battle  began,  that  we  feel  justified 
to  hope  that  he  has  not  failed  since.  He  had  a  severe  engage- 
ment in  getting  the  part  of  his  army  on  this  side  of  the  Chick- 
ahominy  over  to  the  other  side,  in  which  the  enemy  lost 
certainly  as  much  as  we  did. 

3  p.  m.  (To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  The  Chattanooga 
expedition  must  not  on  any  account  be  given  up.  The  Presi- 
dent regards  that  and  the  movement  against  East  Tennessee 
as  one  of  the  most  important  movements  of  the  war,  and  its 
occupation  nearly  as  important  as  the  capture  of  Richmond. 
He  is  not  pleased  with  the  tardiness  of  the  movement  toward 
Chattanooga,  and  directs  that  no  force  be  sent  here  if  you  can 
not  do  it  without  breaking  up  the  operations  against  that  point 
and  East  Tennessee. 

Battle  of  Malvern  Hill,  July  1st,  closes  the  Seven  Days 
Battle.  McClellan  has  retreated  to  a  secure  position  on  the 
James. 

Meanwhile  negotiations  between  the  White  House  and  the 
Governors  of  various  States  have  led  to  a  communication  from 
the  Governors  to  the  President  on  which  Lincoln  now  takes 
action. 

Fully  concurring  in  the  wisdom  of  the  views  expressed  to 
me  in  so  patriotic  a  manner  by  you,  in  the  communication  of 
the  twenty-eighth  of  June,*  I  have  decided  to  call  into  the 
service  an  additional  force  of  300,000  men.  I  suggest  and 
recommend  that  the  troops  should  be  chiefly  of  infantry.  An 
order  fixing  the  quotas  for  the  respective  States  will  be  issued 
by  the  War  Department  to-morrow. 


*In  response  to  his  letter  of  the  same  date. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  299 

(To  General  McClellan.)  It  is  impossible  to  reinforce  you 
for  your  present  emergency.  If  we  had  a  million  of  men  we 
could  not  get  them  to  you  in  time.  We  have  not  the  men  to 
send.  If  you  are  not  strong  enough  to  face  the  enemy,  you 
must  find  a  place  of  security,  and  wait,  rest,  and  repair.  Main- 
tain your  ground  if  you  can,  but  save  the  army  at  all  events, 
even  if  you  fall  back  to  Fort  Monroe.  We  still  have  strength 
enough  in  the  country,  and  will  bring  it  out. 

2nd.  (To  McClellan.)  Your  despatch  of  Tuesday  morn- 
ing induces  me  to  hope  your  army  is  having  some  rest.  In  this 
hope  allow  me  to  reason  with  you  a  moment.  When  you  ask 
for  50,000  men  to  be  promptly  sent  you,  you  surely  labor  under 
some  gross  mistake  of  fact.  Recently  you  sent  papers  show- 
ing your  disposal  of  forces  made  last  spring  for  the  defense 
of  Washington,  and  advising  a  return  to  that  plan.  I  find  it 
included  in  and  about  Washington  75,000  men.  Now,  please 
be  assured  I  have  not  men  enough  to  fill  that  very  plan  by 
15,000. 

If  you  think  you  are  not  strong  enough  to  take  Richmond 
just  now,  I  do  not  ask  you  to  try  just  now.  Save  the  army, 
material  and  personal,  and  I  will  strengthen  it  for  the  offensive 
again  as  fast  as  I  can.  The  governors  of  eighteen  States  offer 
me  a  new  levy  of  300,000,  which  I  accept. 

(To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  Please  tell  me,  could  you 
not  make  me  a  flying  visit  for  consultation  without  endanger- 
ing the  service  in  your  department  ? 

3rd.  I  should  not  want  the  half  of  the  300,000  new  troops 
if  I  could  have  them  now.  If  I  had  50,000  additional  troops 
here  now,  I  believe  I  could  substantially  close  the  war  in  two 
weeks.  But  time  is  everything,  and  if  I  get  50,000  new  men 
in  a  month,  I  shall  have  lost  20,000  old  ones  during  the  same 
month,  having  gained  only  30,000,  with  the  difference  be- 
tween old  and  new  troops  still  against  me. 


300  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

At  last  advices  General  Halleck  thinks  he  can  not  send 
reinforcements  without  endangering  all  he  has  gained. 

[The  President]  is  of  opinion  that  under  the  law  of  Con- 
gress they  [fugitive  slaves]*  can  not  be  sent  back  to  their  mas- 
ters; that  in  common  humanity  they  must  not  be  permitted  to 
suffer  for  want  of  food,  shelter,  or  other  necessaries  of  life; 
that  to  this  end  they  should  be  provided  for  by  the  quarter- 
master's and  commissary's  departments;  and  that  those  who 
are  capable  of  labor  should  be  set  to  work  and  paid  reasonable 
wages. 

In  directing  this  to  be  done,  the  President  does  not  mean, 
at  present,  to  settle  any  general  rule  in  respect  to  slaves  or 
slavery,  but  simply  to  provide  for  the  particular  case  under  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  is  now  presented. 

4th.  (To  McClellan.)  Save  the  army,  first,  where  you 
are,  if  you  can;  and  secondly,  by  removal,  if  you  must.  You, 
on  the  ground,  must  be  the  judge  as  to  which  you  will  attempt, 
and  of  the  means  for  effecting  it.  I  but  give  it  as  my  opinion 
that  with  the  aid  of  the  gunboats  and  reinforcements  men- 
tioned above,  you  can  hold  your  present  position;  provided, 
and  so  long  as  you  can  keep  the  James  River  open  below  you. 

5th.  (To  McClellan.)  A  thousand  thanks  for  the  relief 
your  two  despatches  of  twelve  and  one  p.  m.  yesterday,  gave 
me.  Be  assured  the  heroism  and  skill  of  yourself  and  officers 
and  men  is,  and  forever  will  be,  appreciated. 

If  you  can  hold  your  present  position,  we  shall  have  the 
enemy  yet. 

pth.  Lincoln  visits  McClellan  at  Harrison's  Landing  on 
the  James  and  holds  a  sort  of  informal  court  of  inquisition  on 
the  conduct  of  the  campaign.    He  does  not  ask  for  advice.  His 


*Slaves  who  had  escaped  from  Confederate  masters  and  taken  refuge 
with  Federal  troops,  afforded  the  Abolitionists  another  issue  with  the  Pres- 
ident. The  law  referred  to  is  the  First  Confiscation  Act  providing  for  the 
appropriation  of  property  of  "rebels." 


age  53]  A  N     A  U  TO  BIOGRAPHY  301 

temper  and  attitude  are  profoundly  different  from  what  they 
were  in  the  conference  with  the  generals  on  March  ph.* 

nth.  Ordered  that  Major-General  Henry  W.  Halleck  be 
assigned  to  command  the  whole  land  forces  of  the  United 
States,  as  General-in-Chief,  and  that  he  repair  to  this  capital 
so  soon  as  he  can  with  safety  to  the  positions  and  operations 
within  the  department  now  under  his  charge. 

He  concludes  that  the  desperate  situation  in  which  he  is  now 
placed  compels  him  to  shift  the  issue  of  the  war  and  make 
emancipation  his  avowed  aim.  His  first  step  is  another  appeal 
to  the  Border  States. 

1 2th.  (To  Border-State  Representatives.)  Believing  that 
you  of  the  Border  States  hold  more  power  for  good  than  any 
other  equal  number  of  members  of  Congress  I  feel  it  a  duty 
which  I  can  not  justifiably  waive  to  make  this  appeal  to  you. 

I  intend  no  reproach  or  complaint  when  I  assure  you  that, 
in  my  opinion,  if  you  all  had  voted  for  the  resolution  in  the 
gradual-emancipation  message  of  last  March,  the  war  would 
now  be  substantially  ended.  And  the  plan  therein  proposed 
is  yet  one  of  the  most  potent  and  swift  means  of  ending  it. 
Let  the  States  which  are  in  rebellion  see  definitely  and  cer- 
tainly that  in  no  event  will  the  States  you  represent  ever  join 


*The  contrast  in  these  two  conferences  can  not  be  over-emphasized. 
During  the  four  months  intervening-  Lincoln  had  passed  through  a  trans- 
formation or  something  very  near  to  that.  The  month  of  June  is  the  turn- 
ing point  of  his  career.  Some  change  in  him  was  coming  rapidly  forward 
though  just  what  the  change  was  and  just  how  it  was  accomplished  are 
matters  of  conjecture.  The  interview  with  Scott  seems  to  form  a  crucial 
moment.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  General  Pope,  who  accompanied  him  to 
West  Point,  was  placed  in  high  command  immediately  upon  their  return. 
When  Lincoln  visited  McClellan  at  Harrison's  Landing  all  the  timidity, 
the  hesitation,  that  was  conspicuous  in  him  four  months  before  had  van- 
ished. Previous  to  this  time  there  is  much  in  his  attitude  to  life  that  is 
problematical.  From  this  time  forward  there  is  very  little.  A  great  genius 
has  found  himself,  has  acquired  confidence  in  himself,  and  henceforth  will 
be  master  of  his  own  house. 


3o2  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

their  proposed  confederacy,  and  they  can  not  much  longer 
maintain  the  contest.  But  you  can  not  divest  them  of  their 
hope  to  ultimately  have  you  with  them  so  long  as  you  show  a 
determination  to  perpetuate  the  institution  within  your  own 
States. 

I  do  not  speak  of  emancipation  at  once,  but  of  a  decision 
at  once  to  emancipate  gradually.  Room  in  South  America  for 
colonization  can  be  obtained  cheaply,  and  in  abundance,  and 
when  numbers  shall  be  large  enough  to  be  company  and  en- 
couragement for  one  another,  the  freed  people  will  not  be  so 
reluctant  to  go. 

I  am  pressed  with  a  difficulty  not  yet  mentioned — one  which 
threatens  division  among  those  who,  united,  are  none  too 
strong.  An  instance  of  it  is  known  to  you.  General  Hunter 
is  an  honest  man.  He  was,  and  I  hope  still  is,  my  friend.  I 
valued  him  none  the  less  for  his  agreeing  with  me  in  the  gen- 
eral wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be  free.  He  pro- 
claimed all  men  free  within  certain.  States,  and  I  repudiated  the 
proclamation.  He  expected  more  good  and  less  harm  from 
the  measure  than  I  could  believe  would  follow.  Yet,  in  re- 
pudiating it,  I  gave  dissatisfaction,  if  not  offense,  to  many 
whose  support  the  country  can  not  afford  to  lose.  And  this 
is  not  the  end  of  it.  The  pressure  in  this  direction  is  still  upon 
me,  and  is  increasing.  By  conceding  what  I  now  ask,  you  can 
relieve  me,  and,  much  more,  can  relieve  the  country,  in  this 
important  point. 

Our  common  country  is  in  great  peril,  demanding  the 
loftiest  views  and  boldest  action  to  bring  it  speedy  relief. 
Once  relieved,  its  form  of  government  is  saved  to  the  world, 
its  beloved  history  and  cherished  memories  are  vindicated,  and 
its  happy  future  fully  assured  and  rendered  inconceivably 
grand.  To  you,  more  than  to  any  others,  the  privilege  is  given 
to  assure  that  happiness  and  swell  that  grandeur,  and  to  link 
your  own  names  therewith  forever. 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  303 

13th.  The  Border-State  Representatives  having  refused  to 
endorse  a  policy  of  compensated  emancipation,  Lincoln  dis- 
closes to  Seward  and  Welles  his  conclusion  that  he  must  take 
up  the  policy  of  emancipating  slaves  in  seceded  states  by  mili- 
tary order.  This  will  amount  to  giving  the  war  a  new  issue. 
His  aim  in  so  doing  is  partly  to  kindle  new  enthusiasm  at  home, 
but  even  more,  to  enlist  the  support  of  the  Liberal  party 
throughout  the  world.  The  European  Liberals  have  little 
interest  in  American  nationality.  Since  the  great  Confederate 
success  there  is  imminent  danger  that  England  and  France  may 
recognize  the  Confederate  States.  By  shifting  the  issue  to 
emancipation  powerful  influences  in  both  countries  will  be  en- 
listed against  recognition.  Both  Seward  and  Welles  agree 
with  him. 


Things  had  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  I  felt  that 
we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the  plan  of  operations 
we  had  been  pursuing;  that  we  had  about  played  our  last  card, 
and  must  change  our  tactics  or  lose  the  game.  I  now  deter- 
mined upon  the  adoption  of  the  emancipation  policy. 

(To  McClellan.)  I  am  told  that  over  160,000  men  have 
gone  into  your  army  on  the  Peninsula.  When  I  was  with 
you  the  other  day  we  made  out  86,500  remaining,  leaving 
73,500  to  be  accounted  for.  I  believe  23,500  will  cover  all  the 
killed,  wounded,  and  missing  in  all  your  battles  and  skirmishes, 
leaving  50,000  who  have  left  otherwise.  Not  more  than  5,000 
of  these  have  died,  leaving  45,000  of  your  army  still  alive  and 
not  with  it.  I  believe  that  half  or  two-thirds  of  them  are  fit 
for  duty  to-day.  Have  you  any  more  perfect  knowledge  of 
this  than  I  have?  If  I  am  right  and  you  have  these  men  with 
you,  you  could  go  into  Richmond  in  the  next  three  days.  How 
can  they  be  got  to  you,  and  how  can  they  be  prevented  from 
getting  away  in  such  manner  for  the  future  ? 


304  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

14th.  (To  Halleck.)  I  am  very  anxious — almost  im- 
patient— to  have  you  here.  Have  due  regard  to  what  you  leave 
behind.    When  can  you  reach  here? 


Before  announcing  military  emancipation  he  prepares  an 
escape  for  any  state  that  will  accept  his  terms. 


Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives : 
Herewith  is  a  draft  of  a  bill  to  compensate  any  State  which  may 
abolish  slavery  within  its  limits,  the  passage  of  which,  substan- 
tially as  presented,  I  respectfully  and  earnestly  recommend. 

17th.  The  traitor  against  the  General  Government  for- 
feits his  slave  at  least  as  justly  as  he  does  any  other  property, 
and  he  forfeits  both  to  the  government  against  which  he 
offends.  The  government,  so  far  as  there  can  be  ownership, 
thus  owns  the  forfeited  slaves,  and  the  question  for  Con- 
gress in  regard  to  them  is,  "Shall  they  be  made  free  or  be  sold 
to  new  masters?"  I  perceive  no  objection  to  Congress  de- 
ciding in  advance  that  they  shall  be  free.  To  the  high  honor 
of  Kentucky  as  I  am  informed,  she  has  been  the  owner  of 
some  slaves  by  escheat,  and  she  sold  none,  but  liberated  all.  I 
hope  the  same  is  true  of  some  other  States.  Indeed,  I  do  not 
believe  it  would  be  physically  possible  for  the  General  Govern- 
ment to  return  persons  so  circumstanced  to  actual  slavery.  I 
believe  there  would  be  physical  resistance  to  it  which  could 
neither  be  turned  aside  by  argument  nor  driven  away  by  force. 

22nd.  Without  consultation  with,  or  the  knowledge  of,  the 
Cabinet,  I  prepared  the  original  draft  of  the  proclamation, 
and,  after  much  anxious  thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meeting 
upon  the  subject.  All  were  present,  excepting  Mr.  Blair,  the 
Postmaster-General,  who  was  absent  at  the  opening  of  the 
discussion,  but  came  in  subsequently.     I  said  to  the  Cabinet 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  305 

that  I  had  resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had  not  called  them 
together  to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay  the  subject-matter  of  a 
proclamation  before  them;  suggestions  as  to  which  would  be 
in  order  after  they  had  heard  it  read.  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  in 
error  when  he  informed  you  that  it  excited  no  comment  ex- 
cepting on  the  part  of  Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions 
were  offered.  Secretary  Chase  wished  the  language  stronger 
in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the  blacks. 

Mr.  Blair,  after  he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  cost  the  administration  the  fall  elections. 
Nothing,  however,  was  offered  that  I  had  not  already  fully 
anticipated  and  settled  in  my  own  mind,  until  Secretary  Seward 
spoke.  He  said  in  substance,  "Mr.  President,  I  approve  of 
the  proclamation,  but  I  question  the  expediency  of  its  issue  at 
this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public  mind,  consequent 
upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so  great  that  I  fear  the  effect  of 
so  important  a  story.  It  may  be  viewed  as  the  last  measure  of 
an  exhausted  government,  a  cry  for  help;  the  government 
stretching  forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia 
stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  government."  His  idea  was 
that  it  would  be  considered  our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat. 
This  was  his  precise  expression.  "Now,"  continued  Mr. 
Seward,  "while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you 
postpone  its  issue,  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country  sup- 
ported by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it,  as  would  be 
the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters  of  the  war!"  The 
wisdom  of  the  view  of  the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with 
very  great  force.  It  was  an  aspect  of  the  case  that,  in  all  my 
thought  upon  the  subject,  I  had  entirely  overlooked.  The  re- 
sult was  that  I  put  the  draft  of  the  proclamation  aside,  waiting 
for  a  victory. 

22nd.  First :  Ordered  that  military  commanders  within 
the  States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Ala- 
bama, Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Arkansas  in  an  or- 


306  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

derly  manner  seize  and  use  any  property,  real  or  personal, 
which  may  be  necessary  or  convenient  for  their  several  com- 
mands, for  supplies,  or  for  other  military  purposes;  and  that 
while  property  may  be  destroyed  for  proper  military  objects, 
none  shall  be  destroyed  in  wantonness  or  malice. 

Second :  That  military  and  naval  commanders  shall  em- 
ploy as  laborers,  within  and  from  said  States,  so  many  per- 
sons of  African  descent  as  can  be  advantageously  used  for 
military  or  naval  purposes,  giving  them  reasonable  wages  for 
their  labor. 

28th.  Mr.  Durant  (of  Louisiana)  complains  that  in 
various  ways  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  disturbed  by 
the  presence  of  our  army,  and  he  considers  it  particularly 
vexatious  that  this,  in  part,  is  done  under  cover  of  an  act  of 
Congress,  while  constitutional  guarantees  are  suspended  on 
the  plea  of  military  necessity.  The  truth  is,  that  what  is  done 
and  omitted  about  slaves  is  done  and  omitted  on  the  same  mili- 
tary necessity.  It  is  a  military  necessity  to  have  men  and 
money,  and  we  can  get  neither  in  sufficient  numbers  or 
amounts  if  we  keep  from,  or  drive  from, our  lines  slaves  com- 
ing to  them.  Mr.  Durant  can  not  be  ignorant  of  the  pressure 
in  this  direction,  nor  of  my  efforts  to  hold  it  within  bounds 
till  he  and  such  as  he  shall  have  time  to  help  themselves. 

He  speaks  of  no  duty — apparently  thinks  of  none — resting 
upon  Union  men.  He  even  thinks  it  injurious  to  the  Union 
cause  that  they  should  be  restrained  in  trade  and  passage  with- 
out taking  sides.  They  are  to  touch  neither  a  sail  nor  a  pump, 
but  to  be  merely  passengers — deadheads  at  that — to  be  carried 
snug  and  dry  throughout  the  storm,  and  safely  landed  right 
side  up.  Nay,  more;  even  a  mutineer  is  to  go  untouched,  lest 
these  sacred  passengers  receive  an  accidental  wound.  Of 
course  the  rebellion  will  never  be  suppressed  in  Louisiana  if 
the  professed  Union  men  there  will  neither  help  to  do  it  nor 
permit  the  government  to  do  it  without  their  help.     Now,  I 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  307 

think  the  true  remedy  is  very  different  from  what  is  suggested 
by  Mr.  Durant.  It  does  not  lie  in  rounding  the  rough  angles 
of  the  war,  but  in  removing  the  necessity  for  the  war. 

I  am  in  no  boastful  mood.  I  shall  not  do  more  than  I  can, 
and  I  shall  do  all  I  can,  to  save  the  Government,  which  is  my 
sworn  duty  as  well  as  my  personal  inclination.  I  shall  do  noth- 
ing in  malice.  What  I  deal  with  is  too  vast  for  malicious 
dealing. 

^i st.  Broken  eggs  can  not  be  mended ;  but  Louisiana  has 
nothing  to  do  now  but  to  take  her  place  in  the  Union  as  it  was, 
barring  the  already  broken  eggs.  The  sooner  she  does  so, 
the  smaller  will  be  the  amount  of  that  which  will  be  past  mend- 
ing. This  government  can  not  much  longer  play  a  game  in 
which  it  stakes  all,  and  its  enemies  stake  nothing.  Those  ene- 
mies must  understand  that  they  can  not  experiment  for  ten 
years  trying  to  destroy  the  government,  and  if  they  fail  still 
come  back  into  the  Union  unhurt. 

August  4th.  The  moral  effect  was  the  worst  of  the  affair 
before  Richmond,  and  that  has  run  its  course  downward.  We 
are  now  at  a  stand,  and  shall  soon  be  rising  again,  as  we 
hope.  I  believe  it  is  true  that  in  men  and  material  the  enemy 
suffered  more  than  we  in  that  series  of  conflicts,  while  it  is 
certain  he  is  less  able  to  bear  it. 

6th.  There  has  been  a  very  wide-spread  attempt  to  have 
a  quarrel  between  General  McClellan  and  the  Secretary  of 
War.  Now  I  occupy  a  position  that  enables  me  to  observe 
that  these  two  gentlemen  are  not  nearly  so  deep  in  the  quarrel 
as  some  pretending  to  be  their  friends.  General  McClellan's 
attitude  is  such  that,  in  the  very  selfishness  of  his  nature,  he 
can  not  but  wish  to  be  successful,  and  I  hope  he  will — and  the 
Secretary  of  War  is  in  precisely  the  same  situation.  If  the 
military  commanders  in  the  field  can  not  be  successful,  not 
only  the  Secretary  of  War,  but  myself — for  the  time  being  the 
master  of  them  both — can  not  but  be  failures. 


308  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

14th.  (To  a  Deputation  of  Colored  Men.)  Having  all 
been  seated,  the  President,  after  a  few  preliminary  observa- 
tions, informed  them  that  a  sum  of  money  had  been  appro- 
priated by  Congress,  and  placed  at  his  disposition,  for  the 
purpose  of  aiding  the  colonization  in  some  country  of  the  peo- 
ple, or  a  portion  of  them,  of  African  descent,  thereby  making 
it  his  duty,  as  it  had  for  a  long  time  been  his  inclination,  to 
favor  that  cause.  And  why,  he  asked,  should  the  people  of 
your  race  be  colonized,  and  where  ?  Why  should  they  leave  this 
country?  This  is,  perhaps,  the  first  question  for  proper  con- 
sideration. You  and  we  are  different  races.  We  have  be- 
tween us  a  broader  difference  than  exists  between  almost  any 
other  two  races.  Whether  it  is  right  or  wrong  I  need  not 
discuss;  but  this  physical  difference  is  a  great  disadvantage  to 
us  both,  as  I  think.  Your  race  suffers  very  greatly,  many  of 
them,  by  living  among  us,  while  ours  suffers  from  your  pres- 
ence. In  a  word,  we  suffer  on  each  side.  If  this  is  admitted, 
it  affords  a  reason,  at  least,  why  we  should  be  separated. 

The  place  I  am  thinking  about  for  a  colony  is  in  Central 
America.  It  is  nearer  to  us  than  Liberia — not  much  more  than 
one-fourth  as  far  as  Liberia,  and  within  seven  days'  run  by 
steamers.  Unlike  Liberia,  it  is  a  great  line  of  travel — it  is  a 
highway.  The  country  is  a  very  excellent  one  for  any  people, 
and  with  great  natural  resources  and  advantages,  and  especially 
because  of  the  similarity  of  climate  with  your  native  soil,  thus 
being  suited  to  your  physical  condition.  The  particular  place 
I  have  in  view  is  to  be  a  great  highway  from  the  Atlantic  or 
Caribbean  Sea  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  this  particular  place 
has  all  the  advantages  for  a  colony.  On  both  sides  there  are 
harbors — among  the  finest  in  the  world.  Again,  there  is  evi- 
dence of  very  rich  coal-mines.  A  certain  amount  of  coal  is 
valuable  in  any  country,  and  there  may  be  more  than  enough 
for  the  wants  of  any  country.  Why  I  attach  so  much  impor- 
tance to  coal  is,  it  will  afford  an  opportunity  to  the  inhab- 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  309 

itants  for  immediate  employment  till  they  get  ready  to  settle 
permanently  in  their  homes.  If  you  take  colonists  where  there 
is  no  good  land,  there  is  a  bad  show;  and  so  where  there 
is  nothing  to  cultivate  and  of  which  to  make  a  farm.  But  if 
something  is  started  so  that  you  can  get  your  daily  bread  as 
soon  as  you  reach  there,  it  is  a  great  advantage.  Coal  land  is 
the  best  thing  I  know  of  with  which  to  commence  an  enter- 
prise. 

22nd.  (To  Horace  Greeley.)  I  have  just  read  yours  of 
the  19th  instant,  addressed  to  myself  through  the  New  York 
Tribune*  If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions 
of  fact  which  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not,  now  and 
here,  controvert  them. 

If  there  be  in  it  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe  to  be 
falsely  drawn,  I  do  not,  now  and  here,  argue  against  them. 

If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and  dictatorial 
tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old  friend  whose  heart  I 
have  always  supposed  to  be  right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "seem  to  be  pursuing,"  as  you  say,  I  have 
not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt.  I  would  save  the  Union. 
I  would  save  it  the  shortest  way  under  the  Constitution. 

The  sooner  the  national  authority  can  be  restored,  the 
nearer  the  Union  will  be  the  Union  as  it  was. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless 
they  could  at  the  same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they 
could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them.  My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save  the 
Union,  and  is  not  either  to  save  or  to  destroy  slavery.  If  I 
could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do 
it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do 


*An  article  entitled   The  Prayer  of   Twenty  Millions  demanding  un- 
conditional abolition. 


3io  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others 
alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 

What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  because 
I  believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union ;  and  what  I  forbear,  I  for- 
bear because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help  to  save  the  Union. 

I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing 
hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  shall  believe 
doing  more  will  help  the  cause. 

I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be  errors,  and 
I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true 
views. 

I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my  view  of 
official  duty,  and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft-expressed 
personal  wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be  free. 

23rd.  Halleck  arrives  at  Washington  and  assumes  the  role 
of  commanding  general* 

26th.  (To  Reverdy  Johnson.)  It  seems  the  Union  feeling 
in  Louisiana  is  being  crushed  out  by  the  course  of  General 
Phelps.  Please  pardon  me  for  believing  that  is  a  false  pre- 
tense. The  people  of  Louisiana — all  intelligent  people  every- 
where— know  full  well  that  I  never  had  a  wish  to  touch  the 
foundations  of  their  society,  or  any  right  of  theirs.  With  per- 
fect knowledge  of  this  they  forced  a  necessity  upon  me  to  send 
armies  among  them,  and  it  is  their  own  fault,  not  mine,  that 
they  are  annoyed  by  the  presence  of  General  Phelps.  They 
also  know  the  remedy;  know  how  to  be  cured  of  General 
Phelps.  Remove  the  necessity  of  his  presence.  And  might 
it  not  be  well  for  them  to  consider  whether  they  have  not 
already  had  time  enough  to  do  this?  If  they  can  conceive  of 
anything  worse  than  General  Phelps  within  my  power,  would 
they  not  better  be  looking  out  for  it? 


*Halleck  was  far  too  cautious  for  his  high  position.    Very  soon  he  be- 
came a  figurehead.    See  p.  334. 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  311 

I  am  a  patient  man,  always  willing  to  forgive  on  the  Chris- 
tian terms  of  repentance;  and  also  to  give  ample  time  for  re- 
pentance. Still,  I  must  save  this  government,  if  possible. 
What  I  can  not  do,  of  course  I  will  not  do;  but  it  may  as  well 
be  understood,  once  for  all,  that  I  shall  not  surrender  this 
game  leaving  any  available  card  unplayed. 

Pope  with  his  Army  of  Virginia  moves  directly  south 
from  Washington.  The  Army  of  the  Potomac  on  the  advice 
of  Halleck,  is  being  brought  back  by  zvater  to  its  old  position 
in  front  of  the  capital,  with  a  view  to  combining  it  with  Pope's 
forces.  McClellan  is  virtually,  though  not  formally,  super- 
seded by  Pope. 

4:10  p.  m.  (To  McClellan.)*  Yours  of  to-day  just  re- 
ceived. I  think  your  first  alternative — to-wit,  "to  concentrate 
all  our  available  forces  to  open  communication  with  Pope,"  is 
the  right  one,  but  I  wish  not  to  control.  That  I  now  leave  to 
General  Halleck,  aided  by  your  counsels. 

Pope  is  disastrously  defeated,  Jidy  2pth-joth  in  the  battle 
of  Manassas  (Second  Bidl  Run). 

September  2nd.  Lincoln  informs  Cabinet  he  has  asked 
McClellan  to  resume  command  in  the  place  of  Pope. 

(To  John  Hay.)  He  [McClellan]  has  acted  badly  in  this 
matter  [of  his  relations  with  Pope]  but  we  must  use  what 
tools  we  have.  There  is  no  man  in  this  army  who  can  man 
these  fortifications  and  lick  these  troops  of  ours  into  shape 
half  as  well  as  he.  Unquestionably,  he  has  acted  badly  toward 
Pope ;  he  wanted  him  to  fail.  That  is  unpardonable,  but  he  is 
too  useful  now  to  sacrifice. 


*His  forces  are  passing  back  into  central  Virginia  via  the  Potomac.  His 
enemies  afterward  accused  him  of  not  making  proper  haste  in  coming  to  the 
aid  of  Pope.  Lee,  the  moment  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  recalled,  pre- 
pared to  move  across  Virginia  and  strike  Pope. 


312  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

4th.  Lee  crosses  the  Potomac,  causing  wild  alarm  in  Penn- 
sylvania. 

1 2th.  (To  Governor  Curtin.)  Your  despatch  asking  for 
80,000  disciplined  troops  to  be  sent  to  Pennsylvania  is  received. 
Please  consider  we  have  not  to  exceed  80,000  disciplined  troops, 
properly  so  called,  this  side  of  the  mountains;  and  most  of 
them,  with  many  of  the  new  regiments,  are  now  close  in  the 
rear  of  the  enemy  supposed  to  be  invading  Pennsylvania.  Start 
half  of  them  to  Harrisburg,  and  the  enemy  will  turn  upon  and 
beat  the  remaining  half,  and  then  reach  Harrisburg  before  the 
part  going  there,  and  beat  it  too  when  it  comes.  The  best  pos- 
sible security  for  Pennsylvania  is  putting  the  strongest  force 
possible  in  the  enemy's  rear. 

While  Lee  is  in  Maryland  and  a  crisis  is  at  hand,  the  Aboli- 
tionists, having  no  suspicion  of  Lincoln  s  real  intention,  make 
another  attempt  to  force  him  into  a  comer.  He  uses  the  occa- 
sion to  "feel"  the  country,  playing  advocatus  diaboli  against 
his  secret  purpose. 

13th.  (To  a  Committee  from  the  Religious  Denomina- 
tions of  Chicago,  asking  the  President  to  issue  a  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation.)  I  am  approached  with  the  most  opposite 
opinions  and  advice,  and  that  by  religious  men,  who  are  equally 
certain  that  they  represent  the  Divine  wTill.  I  am  sure  that 
either  the  one  or  the  other  class  is  mistaken  in  that  belief,  and 
perhaps  in  some  respects  both.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent 
for  me  to  say  that  if  it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  His 
will  to  others,  on  a  point  so  connected  with  my  duty,  it  might 
be  supposed  He  would  reveal  it  directly  to  me;  for,  unless  I 
am  more  deceived  in  myself  than  I  often  am,  it  is  my  earnest 
desire  to  know  the  will  of  Providence  in  this  matter.  And  if  I 
can  learn  what  it  is,  I  will  do  it! 


ace  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  313 

What  good  would  a  proclamation  of  emancipation  from 
me  do,  especially  as  we  are  now  situated?  I  do  not  want  to 
issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world  will  see  must 
necessarily  be  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's  bull  against  the 
comet!  Would  my  word  free  the  slaves,  when  I  can  not  even 
enforce  the  Constitution  in  the  rebel  States? 

I  raise  no  objections  against  it  on  legal  or  constitutional 
grounds,  for,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  in 
time  of  war  I  suppose  I  have  a  right  to  take  any  measure  which 
may  best  subdue  the  enemy;  nor  do  I  urge  objections  of  a 
moral  nature,  in  view  of  possible  consequences  of  insurrection 
and  massacre  at  the  South.  I  view  this  matter  as  a  practical 
war  measure,  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the  advantages  or 
disadvantages  it  may  offer  to  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

I  will  also  concede  that  emancipation  would  help  us  in 
Europe,  and  convince  them  that  we  are  incited  by  something 
more  than  ambition. 

I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclamation  of  liberty  to  the 
slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under  advisement ;  and  I  can  assure 
you  that  the  subject  is  on  my  mind,  by  day  and  night,  more 
than  any  other.  Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will,  I 
will  do. 

14th.  (To  General  H.  G.  Wright — at  Cincinnati.) 
Thanks  for  your  despatch.  Can  you  not  pursue  the  retreating 
enemy,  [who  have  made  a  raid  in  Kentucky  while  Lee  was 
moving  northward]  and  relieve  Cumberland  Gap? 

15th.  (To  General  G.  B.  McClellan.)  Your  despatch  of 
to-day  received.  God  bless  you,  and  all  with  you.  Destroy  the 
rebel  army  if  possible. 

1 6th:  noon.  (To  Governor  Curtin,  at  Harrisburg.)  What 
do  you  hear  from  General  McClellan's  army?  We  have  noth- 
ing from  him  to-day. 

2 135  p.  m.  Since  telegraphing  you,  despatch  came  from 
General  McClellan,  dated  seven  o'clock  this  morning.     Noth- 


314  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

ing  of  importance  happened  to  him  yesterday.  This  morning 
he  was  up  with  the  enemy  at  Sharpsburg,  and  waiting  for 
heavy  fog  to  rise. 

iyth.  Antietam-Sharpsburg.  This  dreadful  battle  is  in- 
terpreted by  the  North  as  a  victory,  and  Lincoln  at  once  pre- 
pares to  issue  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

21st.  From  time  to  time  I  added  or  changed  a  line,  [of 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation]  touching  it  up  here  and 
there,  anxiously  watching  the  progress  of  events.  Finally 
came  the  week  of  the  battle  of  Antietam.  I  determined  to 
wait  no  longer.  The  news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday,  that 
the  advantage  was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  staying  at  the 
Soldiers'  Home  [three  miles  out  of  Washington].  Here  I  fin- 
ished writing  the  second  draft  of  the  preliminary  proclama- 
tion; came  up  on  Sunday;  called  the  Cabinet  together  to  hear 
it  and  it  was  published  on  the  following  Monday. 

22nd.  (At  a  Cabinet  meeting.)  Gentlemen,  I  have,  as 
you  are  aware,  thought  a  great  deal  about  the  relation  of  this 
war  to  slavery;  and  you  all  remember  that  several  weeks  ago 
I  read  you  an  order  I  had  prepared  on  this  subject,  which,  on 
account  of  objections  made  by  some  of  you,  was  not  issued. 
Ever  since,  my  mind  has  been  much  occupied  with  this  subject 
and  I  have  thought  all  along  that  the  time  for  acting  on  it 
might  probably  come.  I  think  the  time  has  come  now.  I 
wish  it  was  a  better  time.  I  wish  that  we  were  in  a  better 
condition.  The  action  of  the  army  against  the  Rebels  has  not 
been  quite  what  I  should  have  liked.  But  they  have  been 
driven  out  of  Maryland;  and  Pennsylvania  is  no  longer  in 
danger  of  invasion.  When  the  Rebel  army  was  at  Frederick 
I  determined,  as  soon  as  it  should  be  driven  out  of  Maryland, 
to  issue  a  proclamation  of  emancipation,  such  as  I  thought 
most  likely  to  be  useful.    I  said  nothing  to  any  one,  but  I  made 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  315 

the  promise  to  myself,  and  (hesitating  a  little)  to  my  Maker. 
The  Rebel  army  is  now  driven  out  and  I  am  going  to  fulfill 
that  promise.  I  have  got  you  together  to  hear  what  I  have 
written  down.  I  do  not  wish  your  advice  about  the  main  mat- 
ter, for  that  I  have  determined  for  myself.  This  I  say  with- 
out intending  anything  but  respect  for  any  one  of  you.  But 
I  already  know  the  views  of  each  on  this  question.  They  have 
been  heretofore  expressed,  and  I  have  considered  them  as  thor- 
oughly and  as  carefully  as  I  can.  What  I  have  written  is  that 
which  my  reflections  have  determined  me  to  say.  I  must  do 
the  best  I  can  and  bear  the  responsibility  of  taking  the  course 
which  I  feel  I  ought  to  take. 

(A  Proclamation.)  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
army  and  navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that 
hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the  ob- 
ject of  practically  restoring  the  constitutional  relation  between 
the  United  States  and  each  of  the  States,  and  the  people  there- 
of, in  which  States  that  relation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or  dis- 
turbed. 

That  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of  Congress, 
to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical  measure  ten- 
dering pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  acceptance  or  rejection  of  all 
slave  States,  so  called,  the  people  whereof  may  not  then  be  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States,  and  which  States  may  then 
have  voluntarily  adopted,  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily  adopt, 
immediate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery  within  their  re- 
spective limits;  and  that  the  effort  to  colonize  persons  of  Afri- 
can descent  with  their  consent  upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere, 
with  the  previously  obtained  consent  of  the  governments  exist- 
ing there,  will  be  continued. 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held 


316  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated  part  of  a  State  the  peo- 
ple whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States, 
shall  be  then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  free;  and  the  Ex- 
ecutive Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain 
the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  re- 
press such  persons,  or  any  of  them  in  any  efforts  they  may 
make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that  all 
citizens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have  remained  loyal 
thereto,  throughout  the  rebellion,  shall  (upon  the  restoration 
of  the  constitutional  relation  between  the  United  States  and 
their  respective  States  and  people,  if  that  relation  shall  have 
been  superseded  or  disturbed)  be  compensated  for  all  losses  by 
acts  of  the  United  States,  including  the  loss,  of  slaves. 

24th.  A  proclamation  making  all  persons  discouraging  en- 
listment in  the  army  subject  to  martial  law  and  suspending  so 
jar  as  they  are  concerned  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 

2jth.  Major  Key  and  Major  Turner  appear  before  me. 
Major  Turner  says:  "As  I  remember  it,  the  conversation 
was :  'Why  we  did  not  bag  them  after  the  battle  of  Sharps- 
burg?'  Major  Key's  reply  was.  'That  was  not  the  game; 
that  we  should  tire  the  rebels  out  and  ourselves;  that  was  the 
only  way  the  Union  could  be  preserved,  we  must  come  together 
fraternally,  and  slavery  be  saved/  '  On  cross-examination 
Major  Turner  says  he  has  frequently  heard  Major  Key  con- 
verse in  regard  to  the  present  troubles,  and  never  heard  him 
utter  a  sentiment  unfavorable  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Union. 
He  has  never  uttered  anything  which  he,  Major  T.,  would  call 
disloyalty.  The  particular  conversation  detailed  was  a  private 
one. 

In  my  view  it  is  wholly  inadmissable  for  any  gentleman 
holding  a  military  commission  from  the  United  States  to  ut- 


age  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  317 

ter  such  sentiments  as  Major  Key  is  within  proved  to  have 
done.  Therefore,  let  Major  John  J.  Key  be  forthwith  dis- 
missed from  the  military  service  of  the  United  States. 

28th.  It  is  known  to  some  that,  while  I  hope  something 
from  the  proclamation,  my  expectations  are  not  as  sanguine  as 
are  those  of  some  friends.  The  time  for  its  effect  southward 
had  not  come;  but  northward  the  effect  should  be  instanta- 
neous. It  is  six  days  old,  and  while  commendation  in  news- 
papers and  by  distinguished  individuals  is  all  that  a  vain  man 
could  wish,  the  stocks  have  declined,  and  troops  come  forward 
more  slowly  than  ever.  This,  looked  soberly  in  the  face,  is  not 
very  satisfactory. 

I  happened  to  be  placed,  being  a  humble  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  as  I  am,  and  as  we  all  are,  to 
work  out  His  great  purposes,  I  have  desired  that  all  my  works 
and  acts  may  be  according  to  His  will,  and  that  it  might  be  so, 
I  have  sought  His  aid;  but  if,  after  endeavoring  to  do  my  best 
in  the  light  which  He  affords  me,  I  find  my  efforts  fail,  I  must 
believe  that  for  some  purpose  unknown  to  me,  He  wills  it 
otherwise.  If  I  had  had  my  way,  this  war  would  never  have 
been  commenced.  If  I  had  been  allowed  my  way,  this  war 
would  have  been  ended  before  this;  but  we  find  it  continues 
and  we  must  believe  that  He  permits  it  for  some  wise  purpose 
of  His  own,  mysterious  and  unknown  to  us;  and  though  with 
our  limited  understandings  we  may  not  be  able  to  comprehend 
it,  yet  we  can  not  but  believe  that  He  who  made  the  world  still 
governs  it.* 

30th.  The  will  of  God  prevails.  In  great  contests  each 
party  claims  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God.  Both 
may  be,  and  one  must  be,  wrong.  God  can  not  be  for  and 
against  the  same  thing  at  the  same  time.     In  the  present  civil 


*In  this  period  of  his  life  Lincoln  thought  much  upon  religious  ques- 
tions and  discussed  them  freely  with  his  intimates.  He  was  a  regular  at- 
tendant of  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 


318  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

war  it  is  quite  possible  that  God's  purpose  is  something  dif- 
ferent from  the  purpose  of  either  party;  and  yet  the  human 
instrumentalities,  working  just  as  they  do,  are  of  the  best  adap- 
tation to  effect  His  purpose.  I  am  almost  ready  to  say  that 
this  is  probably  true ;  that  God  wills  this  contest,  and  wills  that 
it  shall  not  end  yet.  By  His  mere  great  power  on  the  minds  of 
the  now  contestants,  He  could  have  either  saved  or  destroyed 
the  Union  without  a  human  contest.  Yet  the  contest  began. 
And,  having  begun,  He  could  give  the  final  victory  to  either 
side  any  day.    Yet  the  contest  proceeds. 

October  4th.  (Remarks  at  Frederick,  Maryland.)  In  my 
present  position  it  is  hardly  proper  for  me  to  make  speeches. 
Every  word  is  so  closely  noted  that  it  will  not  do  to  make  fool- 
ish ones,  and  I  can  not  be  expected  to  be  prepared  to  make  sen- 
sible ones.  If  I  were  as  I  have  been  for  most  of  my  life,  I 
might,  perhaps,  talk  nonsense  to  you  for  half  an  hour,  and  it 
wouldn't  hurt  anybody.  As  it  is,  I  can  only  return  thanks  for 
the  compliment  paid  our  cause.  Please  accept  sincere  thanks 
for  the  compliment  to  our  country. 

6th.  (To  McClellan,  who  has  greatly  disturbed  the  Presi- 
dent by  failing  to  pursue  Lee.)  The  President  directs  that  you 
cross  the  Potomac  and  give  battle  to  the  enemy,  or  drive  him 
south.     Your  army  must  move  now,  while  the  roads  are  good. 

13th.  (To  McClellan.)  You  remember  my  speaking  to 
you  of  what  I  called  your  over-cautiousness.  Are  you  not 
over-cautious  when  you  assume  that  you  can  not  do  what  the 
enemy  is  constantly  doing  ?  Should  you  not  claim  to  be  at  least 
his  equal  in  prowess,  and  act  upon  the  claim  ? 

As  I  understand,  you  telegraphed  General  Halleck  that  you 
can  not  subsist  your  army  at  Winchester  unless  the  railroad 
from  Harper's  Ferry  to  that  point  be  put  in  working  order. 
But  the  enemy  does  not  subsist  his  army  at  Winchester,  at  a 
distance  nearly  twice  as  great  from  railroad  transportation  as 
you  would  have  to  do  without  the  railroad  last  named. 


age  S3]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  319 

Again,  one  of  the  standard  maxims  of  war,  as  you  know, 
is  to  "operate  upon  the  enemy's  communications  as  much  as 
possible  without  exposing  your  own."  You  seem  to  act  as  if 
this  applies  against  you,  but  can  not  apply  in  your  favor. 
Change  positions  with  the  enemy,  and  think  you  not  he  would 
break  your  communication  with  Richmond  within  the  next 
twenty- four  hours? 

If  he  should  move  northward,  I  would  follow  him  closely, 
holding  his  communications.  If  he  should  prevent  our  seizing 
his  communications,  and  move  toward  Richmond,  I  would 
press  closely  to  him,  fight  him  if  a  favorable  opportunity 
should  present,  and  at  least  try  to  beat  him  to  Richmond  on 
the  inside  track.  I  say  "try";  if  we  never  try,  we  shall  never 
succeed.  If  he  makes  a  stand  at  Winchester,  moving  neither 
north  nor  south,  I  would  fight  him  there,  on  the  idea  that  if  we 
can  not  beat  him  when  he  bears  the  wastage  of  coming  to  us, 
We  never  can  when  we  bear  the  wastage  of  going  to  him. 

In  the  West,  the  success  of  the  Federal  armies  has  placed 
the  State  of  Louisiana  under  Federal  control. 

14th.  (To  General  B.  F.  Butler  and  others.)  The  bearer 
of  this,  Hon.  John  E.  Bouligny,  a  citizen  of  Louisiana,  goes  to 
that  State  seeking  to  have  such  of  the  people  thereof  as  desire 
to  avoid  the  unsatisfactory  prospect  before  them,  and  to  have 
peace  again  upon  the  old  terms  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  manifest  such  desire  by  elections  of  members  to 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  particularly,  and  perhaps  a 
legislature,  State  officers,  and  United  States  senators  friendly 
to  their  object.  I  shall  be  glad  for  you,  and  each  of  you,  to  aid 
him  and  all  others  acting  for  this  object  as  much  as  possible.  In 
all  available  ways  give  the  people  a  chance  to  express  their 
wishes  at  these  elections.  Follow  forms  of  law  as  far  as  con- 
venient, but  at  all  events  get  the  expression  of  the  largest  num- 


32o  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

ber  of  the  people  possible.  All  see  how  such  action  will  connect 
with  and  affect  the  proclamation  of  September  22.  Of  course 
the  men  elected  should  be  gentlemen  of  character,  willing  to 
swear  support  to  the  Constitution,  as  of  old,  and  known  to  be 
above  reasonable  suspicion  of  duplicity. 

24th.  (To  McClellan.)  I  have  just  read  your  despatch 
about  sore-tongued  and  fatigued  horses.  Will  you  pardon  me 
for  asking  what  the  horses  of  your  army  have  done  since  the 
battle  of  Antietam  that  fatigues  anything? 

27th.  (To  McClellan.)  Yours  of  yesterday  received. 
Most  certainly  I  intend  no  injustice  to  any,  and  if  I  have  done 
any  I  deeply  regret  it.  To  be  told,  after  more  than  five  weeks' 
total  inaction  of  the  army,  and  during  which  period  we  sent 
to  the  army  every  fresh  horse  we  possibly  could,  amounting  in 
the  whole  to  7,918,  that  the  cavalry  horses  were  too  much  fa- 
tigued to  move,  presents  a  very  cheerless,  almost  hopeless,  pros- 
pect for  the  future,  and  it  may  have  forced  something  of  im- 
patience in  my  despatch.  If  not  recruited  and  rested  then,  when 
could  they  ever  be  ?  I  suppose  the  river  is  rising,  and  I  am  glad 
to  believe  you  are  crossing. 

2pth.  (To  McClellan.)  I  am  much  pleased  with  the  move- 
ment of  the  army.  When  you  get  entirely  across  the  river  let 
me  know.     What  do  you  know  of  the  enemy? 

McClellan  fails  to  attack  Lee  who  makes  good  his  retreat 
into  Virginia. 

November  $th.  By  direction  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  it  is  ordered  that  Major  General  McClellan  be 
relieved  from  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  that 
Major  General  Burnside  take  the  command  of  that  army. 

15th.  The  President,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  by  the  officers  and  men  in  the  military  and  naval  serv- 


age  S3]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  321 

ice.  The  importance  for  man  and  beast  of  the  prescribed 
weekly  rest,  the  sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors, 
a  becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiment  of  a  Christian  peo- 
ple, and  a  due  regard  for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that  Sunday 
labor  in  the  Army  and  Navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of 
strict  necessity. 

2 1  st.  We  do  not  particularly  need  members  of  Congress 
from  those  States  (under  military  control)  to  enable  us  to  get 
along  with  legislation  here.  What  we  do  want  is  the  conclusive 
evidence  that  respectable  citizens  of  Louisiana  are  willing  to  be 
members  of  Congress  and  to  swear  to  support  the  Constitution, 
and  that  other  respectable  citizens  there  are  willing  to  vote  for 
them  and  send  them.  To  send  a  parcel  of  Northern  men  here 
as  representatives,  elected,  as  would  be  understood  (and  per- 
haps really  so),  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  would  be  disgust- 
ing and  outrageous;  and  were  I  a  member  of  Congress  here, 
I  would  vote  against  admitting  any  such  man  to  a  seat. 

I  wish  elections  for  Congressmen  to  take  place  in  Lou- 
isiana; but  I  wish  it  to  be  a  movement  of  the  people  of  the  dis- 
tricts, and  not  a  movement  of  our  military  and  quasi-military 
authorities  there.  I  merely  wish  our  authorities  to  give  the 
people  a  chance — to  protect  them  against  secession  interference. 

24th.  (To  General  Carl  Schurz.)  I  have  just  received 
and  read  your  letter  of  the  20th.  The  purport  of  it  is  that  we 
lost  the  late  elections  and  the  Administration  is  failing  because 
the  war  is  unsuccessful,  and  that  I  must  not  flatter  myself  that 
I  am  not  justly  to  blame  for  it.  I  certainly  know  that  if  the 
war  fails,  the  administration  fails,  and  that  I  will  be  blamed  for 
it,  whether  I  deserve  it  or  not  and  I  ought  to  be  blamed  if  I 
could  do  better.  You  think  I  could  do  better;  therefore  you 
blame  me  already.  I  think  I  could  not  do  better;  therefore  I 
blame  you  for  blaming  me.  I  understand  you  now  to  be  will- 
ing to  accept  the  help  of  men  who  are  not  Republicans,  pro- 
vided they  have  "heart  in  it."    Agreed.    I  want  no  others.   But 


322  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

who  is  to  be  judge  of  hearts,  or  of  "heart  in  it"?  If  I  must 
discard  my  own  judgment  and  take  yours,  I  must  also  take  that 
of  others ;  and  by  the  time  I  should  reject  all  I  should  be  advised 
to  reject,  I  should  have  none  left,  Republicans  or  others — 
not  even  yourself.  For  be  assured,  my  dear  sir,  there  are  men 
who  have  "heart  in  it"  that  think  you  are  performing  your  part 
as  poorly  as  you  think  I  am  performing  mine.  I  certainly  have 
been  dissatisfied  with  the  slowness  of  Buell  and  McClellan; 
but  before  I  relieved  them  I  had  great  fears  I  should  not  find 
successors  to  them  who  would  do  better;  and  I  am  sorry  to 
add  that  I  have  seen  little  since  to  relieve  those  fears. 

27th.  (Steamer  Baltimore,  off  Aquia  Creek,  Virginia.) 
I  have  just  had  a  long  conference  with  General  Burnside.  He 
believes  that  General  Lee's  whole  army,  or  nearly  the  whole  of 
it,  is  in  front  of  him,  at  and  near  Fredericksburg.  General 
Burnside  says  he  could  take  into  battle  now  any  day  about 
110,000  men;  that  his  army  is  in  good  spirit,  good  condition, 
good  morale,  and  that  in  all  respects  he  is  satisfied  with  offi- 
cers and  men;  that  he  does  not  want  more  men  with  him,  be- 
cause he  could  not  handle  them  to  advantage;  that  he  thinks 
he  can  cross  the  river  in  face  of  the  enemy  and  drive  him  away ; 
but  that,  to  use  his  own  expression,  it  is  somewhat  risky. 

December  1st.     Washington. 

(Annual  Message  to  Congress.)  A  nation  may  be  said  to 
consist  of  its  territory,  its  people,  and  its  laws.  The  territory 
is  the  only  part  which  is  of  certain  durability.  "One  gen- 
eration passeth  away,  and  another  generation  cometh,  but  the 
earth  abideth  forever."  It  is  of  the  first  importance  of  duty 
to  consider  and  estimate  this  ever-enduring  part.  That  por- 
tion of  the  earth's  surface  which  is  owned  and  inhabitated  by 
the  people  of  the  United  States  is  well  adapted  to  be  the  home 
of  one  national  family,  and  it  is  not  well  adapted  for  two  or 
more.  Its  vast  extent  and  its  variety  of  climate  and  produc- 
tions are  of  advantage  in  this  age  for  one  people,  whatever 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  323 

they  might  have  been  in  former  ages.  Steam,  telegraphs,  and 
intelligence  have  brought  these  to  be  an  advantageous  com- 
bination for  one  united  people. 

There  is  no  line,  straight  or  crooked,  suitable  for  a  na- 
tional boundary,  upon  which  to  divide.  Trace  through,  from 
east  to  west,  upon  the  line  between  the  free  and  slave  country, 
and  we  shall  find  a  little  more  than  one-third  of  its  length  are 
rivers,  easy  to  be  crossed,  and  populated,  or  soon  to  be  populated 
thickly  upon  both  sides ;  while  nearly  all  its  remaining  length 
are  merely  surveyors'  lines,  over  which  people  may  walk  back 
and  forth  without  any  consciousness  of  their  presence.  No 
part  of  this  line  can  be  made  any  more  difficult  to  pass  by  writ- 
ing it  down  on  paper  or  parchment  as  a  national  boundary. 

But  there  is  another  difficulty.  The  great  interior  region, 
bounded  east  by  the  Alleghanies,  north  by  the  British  domin- 
ions, west  by  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  south  by  the  line 
along  which  the  culture  of  corn  and  cotton  meets,  and  which 
included  part  of  Virginia,  part  of  Tennessee,  all  of  Kentucky, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kan- 
sas, Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  the  Territories  of  Dakota,  Nebraska, 
and  part  of  Colorado,  already  has  above  ten  millions  of  people, 
and  will  have  fifty  millions  within  fifty  years  if  not  prevented 
by  any  political  folly  or  mistake.  It  contains  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  country  owned  by  the  United  States — certainly 
more  than  one  million  of  square  miles.  One-half  as  populous 
as  Massachusetts  already  is,  it  would  have  more  than  seventy- 
five  millions  of  people.  A  glance  at  the  maps  shows  that,  ter- 
ritorially speaking,  it  is  the  great  body  of  the  republic.  The 
other  parts  are  but  marginal  borders  to  it,  the  magnificent  re- 
gion sloping  west  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific 
being  the  deepest  and  also  the  richest  in  undeveloped  resources. 
In  the  production  of  provisions,  grains,  grasses,  and  all  which 
proceed  from  them,  this  great  interior  region  is  naturally  one 
of  the  most  important  in  the  world.    Ascertain  from  the  sta- 


324  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

tistics  the  small  proportion  of  the  region  which  has  as  yet,  been 
brought  into  cultivation,  and  also  the  large  and  rapidly  increas- 
ing amount  of  its  products,  and  we  shall  be  overwhelmed  with 
the  magnitude  of  the  prospect  presented;  and  yet  this  region 
has  no  sea-coast,  touches  no  ocean  anywhere.  As  part  of  one 
nation,  its  people  now  find,  and  may  forever  find,  their  way  to 
Europe  by  New  York,  to  South  America  and  Africa  by  New 
Orleans,  and  to  Asia  by  San  Francisco.  But  separate  our  com- 
mon country  into  two  nations  as  designed  by  the  present  rebel- 
lion, and  every  man  of  this  great  interior  region  is  thereby  cut 
off  from  some  one  or  more  of  these  outlets — not,  perhaps,  by  a 
physical  barrier,  but  by  embarrassing  and  onerous  trade  regu- 
lations. 

And  this  is  true  wherever  a  dividing  or  boundary  line  may 
be  fixed.  Place  it  between  the  now  free  and  slave  country,  or 
place  it  south  of  Kentucky,  or  north  of  Ohio,  and  still  the  truth 
remains  that  none  south  of  it  can  trade  to  any  port  or  place 
north  of  it,  and  none  north  of  it  can  trade  to  any  port  or  place 
south  of  it  except  upon  terms  dictated  by  a  government  foreign 
to  them.  Three  outlets,  east,  west,  and  south  are  indispensable 
to  the  wrell-being  of  the  people  inhabiting,  and  to  inhabit,  this 
vast  interior  region.  Which  of  the  three  may  be  the  best  is  no 
proper  question.  All  are  better  than  either,  and  all  of  right  be- 
long to  that  people  and  to  their  successors  forever.  True  to 
themselves,  they  will  not  ask  where  a  line  of  separation  shall 
be,  but  will  vow  rather  that  there  shall  be  no  such  line.  Nor 
are  the  marginal  regions  less  interested  in  these  communica- 
tions to  and  through  them  to  the  great  outside  world.  They, 
too,  and  each  of  them,  must  have  access  to  this  Egypt  of  the 
West  without  paying  toll  at  the  crossing  of  any  national 
boundary. 

Our  national  strife  springs  not  from  our  permanent  part; 
not  from  the  land  we  inhabit,  not  from  our  national  homestead. 
There  is  no  possible  severing  of  this  but  would  multiply,  and 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  325 

not  mitigate,  evils  among  us.  In  all  Its  adaptations  and  apti- 
tudes, it  demands  union  and  abhors  separation.  In  fact,  it 
would  ere  long  force  reunion,  however  much  of  blood  and 
treasure  the  separation  might  have  cost. 

Our  strife  pertains  to  ourselves :  to  the  passing  genera- 
tions of  men ;  and  it  can  without  convulsion  be  hushed  forever 
with  the  passing  of  one  generation. 

In  this  view  I  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following- 
resolution  and  articles  amendatory  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States: — 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled  (two- 
thirds  of  both  houses  concurring),  That  the  following  articles 
be  proposed  to  the  Legislatures  (or  Conventions)  of  the  sever- 
al States  as  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  all  or  any  of  which  articles  when  ratified  by  three- 
fourths  of  the  said  Legislatures  (or  Conventions)  to  be  valid 
as  part  or  parts  of  the  said  Constitution,  viz. : 

"Article — Every  State  wherein  slavery  now  exists  which 
shall  abolish  the  same  therein  at  any  time  or  times  before  the 
first  day  of  January  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  and 
nine  hundred,  shall  receive  compensation  from  the  United 
States  as  follows,  to  wit : 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  shall  deliver  to  every 
such  State  bonds  of  the  United  States,  bearing  interest  at  the 
rate  of  per  cent,  per  annum,  to  an  amount  equal  to  the  ag- 

gregate sum  of  for  each  slave  shown  to  have  been 

therein  by  the  eighth  census  of  the  United  States,  said  bonds  to 
be  delivered  to  such  State  by  installments,  or  in  one  parcel 
at  the  completion  of  the  abolishment,  accordingly  as  the  same 
shall  have  been  gradual  or  at  one  time  within  such  State ;  and 
interest  shall  begin  to  run  upon  any  such  bond  only  from  the 
proper  time  of  its  delivery  as  aforesaid.  Any  State  having 
received  bonds  as  aforesaid,  and  afterward  re-introducing  or 


326  ABRAHAM.  LINCOLN  U&>2 

tolerating  slavery  therein,  shall  refund  to  the  United  States 
the  bonds  so  received,  or  the  value  thereof,  and  all  interest 
paid  thereon. 

"Article — All  slaves  who  shall  have  enjoyed  actual  freedom 
by  the  chances  of  the  war,  at  any  time  before  the  end  of  the  re- 
bellion, shall  be  forever  free;  but  all  owners  of  such  who  shall 
not  have  been  disloyal  shall  be  compensated  for  them  at  the 
same  rates  as  are  provided  for  States  adopting  abolishment  of 
slavery,  but  in  such  way  that  no  slave  shall  be  twice  accounted 
for. 

"Article — Congress  may  appropriate  money  and  otherwise 
provide  for  colonizing  free  colored  persons,  with  their  own 
consent,  at  any  place  or  places  without  the  United  States. " 

The  emancipation  will  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  advocates 
of  perpetual  slavery;  but  the  length  of  time  should  greatly 
mitigate  their  dissatisfaction.  The  time  spares  both  races  from 
the  evils  of  sudden  derangement — in  fact,  from  the  necessity  of 
any  derangement;  while  most  of  those  whose  habitual  course 
of  thought  will  be  disturbed  by  the  measure  will  have  passed 
away  before  its  consummation.  They  will  never  see  it.  An- 
other class  will  hail  the  prospect  of  emancipation,  but  will 
deprecate  the  length  of  time.  They  will  feel  that  it  gives  too 
little  to  the  now  living  slaves.  But  it  really  gives  them  much. 
It  saves  them  from  the  vagrant  destitution  which  must  largely 
attend  immediate  emancipation  in  localities  where  their  num- 
bers are  very  great;  and  it  gives  the  inspiring  assurance  that 
their  posterity  shall  be  free  forever.  The  plan  leaves  to  each 
State  choosing  to  act  under  it,  to  abolish  slavery  now,  or  at  the 
end  of  the  century,  or  at  any  intermediate  time,  or  by  degrees 
extending  over  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  period;  and  it 
obliges  no  two  States  to  proceed  alike.  It  also  provides  for 
compensation,  and  generally  the  mode  of  making  it.  This,  it 
would  seem,  must  further  mitigate  the  dissatisfaction  of  those 
who  favor  perpetual  slavery,  and  especially  of  those  who  are  to 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  327 

receive  the  compensation.  Doubtless  some  of  those  who  are  to 
pay  and  not  to  receive,  will  object.  Yet  the  measure  is  both 
just  and  economical.  In  a  certain  sense  the  liberation  of  slaves 
is  the  destruction  of  property — property  acquired  by  descent 
or  by  purchase,  the  same  as  any  other  property.  It  is  no  less 
true  for  having  been  often  said,  that  the  people  of  the  South 
are  not  more  responsible  for  the  original  introduction  of  this 
property  than  are  the  people  of  the  North ;  and  when  it  is  re- 
membered how  unhesitatingly  we  all  use  cotton  and  sugar  and 
share  the  profits  of  dealing  in  them,  it  may  not  be  quite  safe 
to  say  that  the  South  has  been  more  responsible  than  the  North 
for  its  continuance.  If,  then,  for  a  common  object  this  prop- 
erty is  to  be  sacrificed,  is  it  not  just  that  it  be  done  at  a 
common  charge? 

Fellow-citizens,  we  can  not  escape  history.  We  of  this  Con- 
gress and  this  Administration  will  be  remembered  in  spite  of 
ourselves.  No  personal  significance  or  insignificance  can 
spare  one  or  another  of  us.  The  fiery  trial  through  which  we 
pass  will  light  us  down,  in  honor  or  dishonor,  to  the  latest 
generation.  We  say  we  are  for  the  Union.  The  world  will 
not  forget  that  we  say  this.  We  know  how  to  save  the  Union. 
The  world  knows  we  do  know  how  to  save  it.  We — even 
we  here — hold  the  power  to  bear  the  responsibility.  In  giving 
freedom  to  the  slave,  we  assure  freedom  to  the  free — honorable 
alike  in  what  we  give  and  what  we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly 
save  or  meanly  lose  the  last  best  hope  of  earth.  Other  means 
may  succeed;  this  could  not,  can  not  fail.  The  way  is  plain, 
peaceful,  generous,  just — a  way  which,  if  followed,  the  world 
will  forever  applaud,  and  God  must  forever  bless. 

nth.  Anxious  to  not  act  with  so  much  clemency  as  to  en- 
courage another  outbreak  (of  Indian  war  in  Minnesota)  on  the 
one  hand,  nor  with  so  much  severity  as  to  be  real  cruelty  on  the 
other,  I  caused  a  careful  examination  of  the  records  to  be  made, 
in  view  of  first  ordering  the  execution  of  such  as  had  been 


328  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

proved  of  violating  females.  Contrary  to  my  expectations, 
only  two  of  this  class  were  found.  I  then  directed  a  further 
examination,  and  a  classification  of  all  who  were  proven  to 
have  participated  in  massacres,  as  distinguished  from  partici- 
pation in  battles.  This  class  numbered  forty,  and  included  the 
two  convicted  of  female  violation.  One  of  the  number  is 
strongly  recommended,  by  the  commission  which  tried  them, 
for  commutation  to  ten  years'  imprisonment.  I  have  ordered 
the  other  thirty-nine  to  be  executed  on  Friday,  the  19th  instant. 

1 2th.  (To  Fernando  Wood.)  Your  letter  of  the  8th,  with 
accompanying  note  of  same  date,  was  received  yesterday. 

The  most  important  paragraph  in  the  letter,  as  I  consider, 
is  in  these  words :  "On  the  25th  of  November  last  I  was  ad- 
vised by  an  authority  which  I  deemed  likely  to  be  well  informed, 
as  well  as  reliable  and  truthful,  that  the  Southern  States 
would  send  representatives  to  the  next  Congress,  provided  that 
a  full  and  general  amnesty  should  permit  them  to  do  so.  No 
guarantees  or  terms  were  asked  for  other  than  the  amnesty 
referred  to." 

I  strongly  suspect  your  information  will  prove  to  be 
groundless;  nevertheless,  I  thank  you  for  communicating  it 
to  me.  Understanding  the  phrase  in  the  paragraph  above 
quoted — "the  Southern  States  would  send  representatives  to 
the  next  Congress" — to  be  substantially  the  same  as  that  "the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  would  cease  resistance,  and 
would  reinaugurate,  submit  to,  and  maintain  the  national  au- 
thority within  the  limits  of  such  States  under  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,"  I  say  that  in  such  case  the  war  would 
cease  on  the  part  of  the  United  States;  and  that  if  within  a 
reasonable  time  "a  full  and  general  amnesty"  were  necessary 
to  such  end,  it  would  not  be  withheld. 

I  do  not  think  it  would  be  proper  now  for  me  to  communi- 
cate this  formally  or  informally  to  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States.    My  belief  is  that  they  already  know  it ;    and  when  they 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  329 

choose,  if  ever,  they  can  communicate  with  me  unequivocally. 
Nor  do  I  think  it  proper  now  to  suspend  military  operations  to 
try  any  experiment  of  negotiation. 

I  should  nevertheless  receive  with  great  pleasure  the  exact 
information  you  now  have,  and  also  such  other  as  you  may  in 
any  way  obtain.  Such  information  might  be  more  valuable 
before  the  1st  of  January  than  afterward. 

ijth.     Fredericksburg. 

16th.  (To  General  Curtis.)  N.  W.  Watkins,  of  Jackson, 
Missouri,  (who  is  half  brother  to  Henry  Clay),  writes  me  that 
a  colonel  of  ours  has  driven  him  from  his  home  at  Jackson. 
Will  you  please  look  into  the  case  and  restore  the  old  man  to 
his  home  if  the  public  interest  will  admit? 

lyth.  Republican  members  of  the  Senate  meet  in  caucus 
which  is  dominated  by  the  enemies  of  Seward.  Their  aim  is  to 
force  the  President  to  dismiss  the  Cabinet  and  re-constitute  it 
under  the  influence  of  Chase. 

1 8th.  (To  Senator  Browning  who  has  reported  to  Lincoln 
that  the  caucus  has  named  a  committee  that  shall  lay  its  de- 
mands before  him.)     What  do  those  men  want? 

(Browning:  I  hardly  know,  Mr.  President,  but  they  are 
exceedingly  violent  against  the  administration.) 

They  wish  to  get  rid  of  me,  and  I  am  sometimes  half 
disposed  to  gratify  them. 

(Browning:  You  must  stand  firmly  at  your  post,  with 
a  steady  hand.) 

We  are  on  the  brink  of  destruction.  It  appears  to  me  that 
the  Almighty  is  against  us  and  I  can  hardly  see  a  ray  of  hope. 
The  committee  is  to  be  up  and  see  me  at  7  o'clock.  Since  I 
heard  last  night  of  the  proceedings  of  the  caucus,  I  have  been 
more  distressed  than  by  any  event  of  my  life. 


330  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1862 

The  President  brings  the  committee  and  the  Cabinet  face 
to  face.  Chase  disappoints  his  friends  by  failing  to  come  out 
frankly  in  agreement  with  their  views.  The  committee  with- 
draws in  bad  humor. 

Seward  submits  his  resignation.  Chase  feels  he  must  fol- 
low suit. 

ipth.  (Chase  calls  on  the  President  and  says  he  has  pre- 
pared his  resignation.) 

Where  is  it? 

(Chase :    I  brought  it  with  me.) 

Let  me  have  it.  This  (seizing  the  paper)  cuts  the  Gordian 
knot.  I  can  dispose  of  this  subject  now  without  any  difficulty. 
I  see  my  way  clear. 

20th.  Now  I  can  ride.  I  have  a  pumpkin  in  each  end  of 
my  sack. 

(To  Secretaries  Seward  and  Chase.)  You  have  respective- 
ly tendered  me  your  resignations  as  Secretary  of  State  and 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  I  am  apprised 
of  the  circumstances  which  may  render  this  course  personally 
desirable  to  each  of  you;  but  after  most  anxious  considera- 
tion, my  deliberate  judgment  is,  that  the  public  interest  does  not 
admit  of  it.  I  therefore  have  to  request  that  you  will  resume 
the  duties  of  your  departments  respectively. 

While  they  [the  enemies  of  Seward]  seemed  to  believe  in 
my  honesty,  they  also  appeared  to  think  that  when  I  had  in  me 
any  good  purpose  or  intention,  Seward  contrived  to  suck  it 
out  of  me  unperceived.* 

2 1 st.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Do  not  come  on  the  night  train. 
It  is  too  cold.    Come  in  the  morning. 

22tid.     (To  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.)     I  have  just  read 


*Date  approximate. 


age  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  331 

your  commanding  general's  report  of  the  battle  of  Fredericks- 
burg. Although  you  were  not  successful,  the  attempt  was  not 
an  error,  nor  the  failure  other  than  accident.  The  courage  with 
which  you,  in  an  open  field,  maintained  the  contest  against  an 
intrenched  foe,  and  the  consummate  skill  and  success  with 
which  you  crossed  and  recrossed  the  river  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy,  show  that  you  possess  all  the  qualities  of  a  great  army, 
which  will  yet  give  victory  to  the  cause  of  the  country  and  of 
popular  government. 

(To  Generals  W.  B.  Franklin  and  W.  F.  Smith.)  Yours 
of  the  2 1st,  suggesting  a  plan  of  operation  for  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  is  received.  I  have  hastily  read  the  plan,  and  shall 
yet  try  to  give  it  more  deliberate  consideration,  with  the  aid  of 
military  men.  Meanwhile  let  me  say  it  seems  to  me  to  present 
the  old  question  of  preference  between  the  line  of  the  Penin- 
sula and  the  line  you  are  now  upon.  The  difficulties  you  point 
out  as  pertaining  to  the  Fredericksburg  line  are  obvious  and 
palpable.  But  now,  as  heretofore,  if  you  go  to  James  River,  a 
large  part  of  the  army  must  remain  on  or  near  the  Fredericks- 
burg line,  to  protect  Washington.  It  is  the  old  difficulty. 
When  I  saw  General  Franklin  at  Harrison's  Landing  on  James 
River  last  July,  I  can  not  be  mistaken  in  saying  that  he  distinct- 
ly advised  the  bringing  of  the  army  away  from  there. 

(To  Governor  Curtin,  talking  about  the  campaign  of 
Fredericksburg.)  This  reminds  me  of  an  old  farmer  I  used 
to  know  out  in  Illinois.  He  took  it  into  his  head  to  go  into 
hog-raising.  He  sent  out  to  Europe  and  imported  the  finest 
breed  of  hogs  he  could  buy.  The  prize  hog  was  put  into  a 
pen  and  the  farmer's  two  mischievous  boys,  James  and  John, 
were  told  to  be  sure  not  to  let  it  out.  But  James,  the  worst  of 
the  two,  let  the  brute  out  the  next  day.  The  hog  went  straight 
for  the  boys,  and  drove  John  up  a  tree,  then  the  hog  went  for 
the  seat  of  James'  trousers,  and  the  only  way  the  boy  could 
save  himself  was  by  holding  on  to  the  hog's  tail.     The  hog 


332  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1862 

would  not  give  up  his  hunt,  nor  the  boy  his  hold.  After  they 
had  made  a  good  many  circles  around  the  tree,  the  boy's 
courage  began  to  give  out  and  he  shouted  to  his  brother :  "I 
say,  John,  come  down  quick  and  help  me  let  go  this  hog." 

Now,  Governor,  that  is  exactly  my  case.    I  wish  some  one 
would  come  and  help  me  let  the  hog  go.* 


:Date  conjectural. 


1863 

January  ist.  (Proclamation.)  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  by  virtue  in  me  vested  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States, 
in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against  the  authority  and 
government  of  the  United  States  wherein  the  people  thereof, 
respectively,  are  this  day  in  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do, 
publicly  proclaimed  for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days 
from  the  day  first  above  mentioned,  order  and  designate  as 
the  States  and  parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof,  re- 
spectively, are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States, 
the  following,  to-wit: 

Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of  St. 
Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles,  Ascen- 
sion, Assumption,  Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St. 
Martin,  and  Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New  Orleans), 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North 
Carolina,  and  Virginia  (except  the  forty-eight  counties  desig- 
nated as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the  counties  of  Berkeley,  Ac- 
comac,  Northampton,  Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess  Ann,  and 
Norfolk,  including  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth),  and 
which  excepted  parts  are  for  the  present  left  precisely  as  if  this 
proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  aforesaid, 
I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within 
said  designated  States  and  parts  of  States  are,  and  hence- 

333 


334  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

forward  shall  be  free;  and  that  the  Executive  Government  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authorities 
thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said 
persons. 

(To  General  H.  W.  Llalleck.)  General  Burnside  wishes 
to  cross  the  Rappahannock  with  his  army,  but  his  grand 
division  commanders  all  oppose  the  movement.  If  in  such  a 
difficulty  as  this  you  do  not  help,  you  fail  me  precisely  in  the 
point  for  which  I  sought  your  assistance.  You  know  what 
General  Burnside's  plan  is,  and  it  is  my  wish  that  you  go  with 
him  to  the  ground,  examine  it  as  far  as  practicable,  confer  with 
the  officers,  getting  their  judgment  and  ascertaining  their 
temper ;  in  a  word,  gather  all  the  elements  for  forming  a  judg- 
ment of  your  own,  and  then  tell  General  Burnside  that  you 
do  approve  his  plan.  Your  military  skill  is  useless  to  me 
if  you  do  not  do  this. 

2nd.  (To  General  S.  R.  Curtis.)  Yours  of  December  29 
by  the  hand  of  Mr.  Strong  is  just  received.  The  day  I  tele- 
graphed you  suspending  the  order  in  relation  to  Doctor  Mc- 
Pheeters,  he,  with  Mr.  Bates,  the  Attorney-General,  appeared 
before  me  and  left  with  me  a  copy  of  the  order  mentioned. 
The  doctor  also  showed  me  the  copy  of  an  oath  which  he  said 
he  had  taken,  which  is,  indeed,  very  strong  and  specific.  He 
also  verbally  assured  me  that  he  had  constantly  prayed  in 
church  for  the  President  and  government,  as  he  had  always 
done  before  the  present  war.  In  looking  over  the  recitals  in 
your  order,  I  do  not  see  that  this  matter  of  prayer,  as  he  states 
it,  is  negatived,  nor  that  any  violation  of  his  oath  is  charged, 
nor,  in  fact,  that  anything  specific  is  alleged  against  him. 
The  charges  are  all  general:  that  he  has  a  rebel  wife  and  rebel 
relations,  that  he  sympathizes  with  rebels,  and  that  he  exercises 
rebel  influence.  Now,  after  talking  with  him,  I  tell  you 
frankly  I  believe  he  does  sympathize  with  the  rebels,  but  the 
question  remains  whether  such  a  man,  of  unquestioned  good 


are  53]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  335 

moral  character,  who  has  taken  such  an  oath  as  he  has,  and 
can  not  even  be  charged  with  violating  it,  and  who  can  be 
charged  with  no  other  specific  act  of  omission,  can,  with  safety 
to  the  government,  be  exiled  upon  the  suspicion  of  his  secret 
sympathies.  But  I  agree  that  this  must  be  left  to  you,  who 
are  on  the  spot;  and  if,  after  all,  you  think  the  public  good 
requires  his  removal,  my  suspension  of  the  order  is  withdrawn, 
only  with  this  qualification,  that  the  time  during  the  suspen- 
sion is  not  to  be  counted  against  him.  I  have  promised  him 
this.  But  I  must  add  that  the  United  States  Government  must 
not,  as  by  this  order,  undertake  to  run  the  churches.  When 
an  individual  in  a  church  or  out  of  it  becomes  dangerous  to 
the  public  interest,  he  must  be  checked;  but  let  the  churches, 
as  such,  take  care  of  themselves.  It  will  not  do  for  the  United 
States  to  appoint  trustees,  supervisors,  or  other  agents  for  the 
churches. 

$th.  (To  General  S.  R,  Curtis.)  I  am  having  a  good  deal 
of  trouble  with  Missouri  matters,  and  I  now  sit  down  to  write 
you  particularly  about  it.  One  class  of  friends  believe  in 
greater  leniency  in  regard  to  arrests,  banishments,  and  assess- 
ments. As  usual  in  such  cases,  each  questions  the  other's 
motives.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  insisted  that  Governor  Gam- 
ble's Unionism,  at  most,  is  not  better  than  a  secondary  spring 
of  action;  that  hunkerism  and  a  wish  for  political  influence 
stand  before  Unionism  with  him.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
urged  that  arrests,  banishments,  and  assessments  are  made 
more  for  private  malice,  revenge,  and  pecuniary  interest  than 
for  the  public  good.  This  morning  I  was  told  by  a  gentleman 
who  I  have  no  doubt  believes  what  he  says,  that  in  one  case 
of  assessments  for  $10,000,  the  different  persons  who  paid 
compared  receipts,  and  found  they  had  paid  $30,000.  If  this 
be  true,  the  inference  is  that  the  collecting  agents  pocketed  the 
odd  $20,000.  And  true  or  not  in  the  instance,  nothing  but 
the  sternest  necessity  can  justify  the  making  and  maintaining 


336  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

of  a  system  so  liable  to  such  abuses.  Doubtless  the  necessity 
for  the  making  of  the  system  in  Missouri  did  exist,  and 
whether  it  continues  for  the  maintenance  of  it  is  now  a  prac- 
tical and  very  important  question. 

Some  days  ago  General  Gamble  telegraphed  me,  asking 
that  the  assessments  outside  of  St.  Louis  County  might  be 
suspended,  as  they  already  have  been  within  it,  and  this  morn- 
ing all  the  members  of  Congress  here  from  Missouri  but  one 
laid  a  paper  before  me  asking  the  same  thing.  Now,  my  belief 
is  that  Governor  Gamble  is  an  honest  and  true  man,  not  less 
so  than  yourself;  that  you  and  he  could  confer  together  on  this 
and  other  Missouri  questions  with  great  advantage  to  the 
public;  that  each  knows  something  which  the  other  does  not; 
and  that  acting  together  you  could  about  double  your  stock  of 
pertinent  information.  May  I  not  hope  that  you  and  he  will 
attempt  this?  I  could  at  once  safely  do  (or  you  could  safely 
do  without  me)  whatever  you  and  he  agree  upon.  There  is 
absolutely  no  reason  why  you  should  not  agree. 

It  is  most  cheering  and  encouraging  for  me  to  know  that 
in  the  efforts  which  I  have  made  and  am  making  for  the  res- 
toration of  a  righteous  peace  to  our  country,  I  am  upheld  and 
sustained  by  the  good  wishes  and  prayers  of  God's  people. 
No  one  is  more  deeply  than  myself  aware  that  without  His 
favor  our  highest  wisdom  is  but  as  foolishness  and  that  our 
most  strenuous  efforts  would  avail  nothing  in  the  shadow  of 
His  displeasure.  I  am  conscious  of  no  desire  for  my  country's 
welfare  that  is  not  in  consonance  with  His  will,  and  of  no  plan 
upon  which  we  may  not  ask  His  blessing.  It  seems  to  me  that 
if  there  be  one  subject  upon  which  all  good  men  may  unitedly 
agree,  it  is  imploring  the  gracious  favor  of  the  God  of  nations 
upon  the  struggles  our  people  are  making  for  the  preservation 
of  their  precious  birthright  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

8th.  I  never  did  ask  more,  nor  ever  was  willing  to  accept 
less,  than  for  all  the  States,  and  the  people  thereof,  to  take  and 


are  53]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  337 

hold  their  places  and  their  rights  in  the  Union,  under  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.  For  this  alone  have  I  felt 
authorized  to  struggle  and  I  seek  neither  more  nor  less  now. 
Still,  to  use  a  coarse  but  an  expressive  figure,  "broken  eggs 
can  not  be  mended."  I  have  issued  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation, and  I  can  not  retract  it.  After  the  commencement  of 
hostilities,  I  struggled  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  to  get  along 
without  touching  the  "institution" ;  and  when  finally  I  con- 
ditionally determined  to  touch  it,  I  gave  a  hundred  days'  fair 
notice  of  my  purpose  to  all  the  States  and  people,  within  which 
time  they  could  have  turned  it  wholly  aside  by  simply  again 
becoming  good  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

14th.  (To  General  J.  A.  Dix.)  The  proclamation  has 
been  issued.  We  were  not  succeeding — at  best  we  were 
progressing  too  slowly — without  it.  Now  that  we  have  it,  and 
bear  all  the  disadvantages  of  it  (as  we  do  bear  some  in  certain 
quarters),  we  must  also  take  some  benefit  from  it,  if  prac- 
ticable. I  therefore  will  thank  you  for  your  well-considered 
opinion  whether  Fortress  Monroe  and  Yorktown,  one  or  both, 
could  not,  in  whole  or  in  part,  be  garrisoned  by  colored  troops, 
leaving  the  white  forces  now  necessary  at  those  places  to  be 
employed  elsewhere. 

ipth.  (To  the  Workingmen  of  Manchester,  England.) 
I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  address  and 
resolutions  which  you  sent  me  on  the  eve  of  the  new  year. 

I  have  understood  well  that  the  duty  of  self-preservation 
rests  solely  with  the  American  people.  But  I  have  at  the  same 
time  been  aware  that  favor  or  disfavor  of  foreign  nations 
might  have  a  material  influence  in  enlarging  or  prolonging 
the  struggle  with  disloyal  men  in  which  the  country  is  engaged. 
A  fair  examination  of  history  has  served  to  authorize  a  belief 
that  the  past  actions  and  influences  of  the  United  States  were 
generally  regarded  as  having  been  beneficial  toward  mankind. 
I  have,  therefore,  reckoned  upon  the  forbearance  of  nations. 


338  "ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

Circumstances — to  some  of  which  you  kindly  allude — induce 
me  especially  to  expect  that  if  justice  and  good  faith  should  be 
practised  by  the  United  States,  they  would  encounter  no  hos- 
tile influence  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  now  a  pleasant 
duty  to  acknowledge  the  demonstration  you  have  given  of 
your  desire  that  a  spirit  of  amity  and  peace  toward  this  country 
may  prevail  in  the  councils  of  your  Queen,  who  is  respected  and 
esteemed  in  your  country  only  more  than  she  is  by  the  kindred 
nation  which  has  its  home  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

I  know  and  deeply  deplore  the  sufferings  which  the  work- 
ingmen  at  Manchester,  and  in  all  Europe,  are  called  to  endure 
in  this  crisis.  It  has  been  often  and  studiously  represented 
that  the  attempt  to  overthrow  this  Government,  which  was 
built  upon  the  foundation  of  human  rights,  and  to  substitute 
for  it  one  which  should  rest  exclusively  on  the  basis  of  human 
slavery,  was  likely  to  obtain  the  favor  of  Europe.  Through 
the  action  of  our  disloyal  citizens,  the  workingmen  of  Europe 
have  been  subjected  to  severe  trials,  for  the  purpose  of  forcing 
their  sanction  to  that  attempt.  Under  the  circumstances,  I  can 
not  but  regard  your  decisive  utterances  upon  the  question  as 
an  instance  of  sublime  Christian  heroism  which  has  not  been 
surpassed  in  any  age  or  in  any  country.  It  is  indeed  an  ener- 
getic and  reinspiring  assurance  of  the  inherent  power  of  truth, 
and  of  the  ultimate  and  universal  triumph  of  justice,  human- 
ity and  freedom.  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  sentiments  you  have 
expressed  will  be  sustained  by  your  great  nation;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  assuring  you  that  they 
will  excite  admiration,  esteem  and  the  most  reciprocal  feelings 
of  friendship  among  the  American  people.  I  hail  this  inter- 
change of  sentiment,  therefore,  as  an  augury  that  whatever 
else  may  happen,  whatever  misfortune  may  befall  your  country 
or  my  own,  the  peace  and  friendship  which  now  exists  be- 
tween the  two  nations  will  be,  as  it  shall  be  my  desire  to  make 
them,  perpetual. 


ARE531  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  330, 

21st.  The  foregoing  proceedings,  findings,  and  sentence, 
in  the  foregoing  case  of  Major-General  Fitz-John  Porter  are 
approved  and  confirmed;  and  it  is  ordered  that  the  said  Fitz- 
John  Porter  be,  and  he  hereby  is,  cashiered  and  dismissed  from 
the  service  of  the  United  States  as  a  major-general  of  volun- 
teers, and  as  colonel  and  brevet  brigadier-general  in  the  reg- 
ular service  of  the  United  States,  and  forever  disqualified 
from  holding  any  office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States. 

25th.    The  President  of  the  United  States  has  directed : 

That  Major-General  A.  E.  Burnside,  at  his  own  request,  be 
relieved  from  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

That  Major-General  J.  Hooker  be  assigned  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

26th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  I  have  placed  you  at  the 
head  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Of  course  I  have  done  this 
upon  what  appears  to  me  to  be  sufficient  reasons,  and  yet  I 
think  it  best  for  you  to  know  that  there  are  some  things  in 
regard  to  which  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with  you.  I  believe 
you  to  be  a  brave  and  skilful  soldier,  which,  of  course,  I  like. 
I  also  believe  you  do  not  mix  politics  with  your  profession,  in 
which  you  are  right.  You  have  confidence  in  yourself,  which 
is  valuable  if  not  an  indispensable  quality.  You  are  ambitious, 
which,  within  reasonable  bounds,  does  good  rather  than  harm ; 
but  I  think  that  during  General  Burnside's  command  of  the 
army  you  have  taken  counsel  of  your  ambition  and  thwarted 
him  as  much  as  you  could,  in  which  you  did  a  great  wrong 
to  the  country  and  to  a  most  meritorious  and  honorable 
brother  officer.  I  have  heard,  in  such  a  way  as  to  believe  it, 
of  your  recently  saying  that  both  the  army  and  the  government 
needed  a  dictator.  Of  course  it  was  not  for  this,  but  in  spite 
of  it,  that  I  have  given  you  the  command.  Only  those  gen- 
erals who  gain  successes  can  set  up  dictators.  What  I  now  ask 
of  you  is  military  success,  and  I  will  risk  the  dictatorship. 


340  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

The  government  will  support  you  to  the  utmost  of  its  ability, 
which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  it  has  done  and  will  do  for 
all  commanders.  I  much  fear  that  the  spirit  which  you  have 
decided  to  infuse  into  the  army  of  criticizing  their  commander 
and  withholding  confidence  from  him,  will  now  turn  upon  you. 
I  shall  assist  you  as  far  as  I  can  to  put  it  down.  Neither  you 
nor  Napoleon,  if  he  were  alive  again,  could  get  any  good  out 
of  an  army  while  such  spirit  prevails  in  it;  and  now  beware 
of  rashness.  Beware  of  rashness,  but  with  energy  and  sleep- 
less vigilance  go  forward  and  give  us  victories. 

29th.  (To  Thurlow  Weed.)  Your  valedictory  to  the  pa- 
trons of  the  Albany  Evening  Journal  brings  me  a  good  deal 
of  uneasiness.     What  does  it  mean? 

February  2nd.  (To  the  Workingmen  of  London,  Eng- 
land.) I  have  received  the  New  Year's  address  which  you 
have  sent  me,  with  a  sincere  appreciation  of  the  exalted  and 
humane  sentiments  by  which  it  was  inspired. 

As  these  sentiments  are  manifestly  the  enduring  support  of 
the  free  institutions  of  England,  so  I  am  sure  also  that  they 
constitute  the  only  reliable  basis  for  free  institutions  through- 
out the  world. 

The  resources,  advantages,  and  powers  of  the  American 
people  are  very  great,  and  they  have  consequently  succeeded  to 
equally  great  responsibilities.  It  seems  to  have  devolved  upon 
them  to  test  whether  a  government  established  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  human  freedom  can  be  maintained  against  an  effort 
to  build  one  upon  the  exclusive  foundation  of  human  bondage. 
They  will  rejoice  with  me  in  the  new  evidences  which  your 
proceedings  furnish  that  the  magnanimity  they  are  exhibiting 
is  justly  estimated  by  the  true  friends  of  freedom  and  human- 
ity in  foreign  countries. 

Accept  my  best  wishes  for  your  individual  welfare,  and 
for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  whole  British  people. 

5th.    (To  General  Franz  Siegel.)     General  Schurz  thinks  I 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  341 

was  a  little  cross  in  my  last  note  to  you.  If  I  was,  I  ask  par- 
don. If  I  do  get  up  a  little  temper  I  have  not  sufficient  time 
to  keep  it  up. 

22nd.  (To  Reverend  Alexander  Reed.)  Your  note  by 
which  you,  as  General  Superintendent  of  the  United  States 
Christian  Commission,  invite  me  to  preside  at  a  meeting  to  be 
held  this  day  at  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
this  city,  is  received. 

While  for  reasons  which  I  deem  sufficient,  I  must  decline 
to  preside,  I  can  not  withhold  my  approval  of  the  meeting  and 
its  worthy  objects.  Whatever  shall  be  sincerely,  and  in  God's 
name,  devised  for  the  good  of  the  soldier  and  seaman  in  their 
hard  spheres  of  duty,  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  blessed. 

28th.  In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  of 
the  26th  instant,  requesting  a  copy  of  any  correspondence 
which  may  take  place  between  me  and  workingmen  in  England, 
I  transmit  the  papers  mentioned  in  the  subjoined  list. 

March  10th.  And  I  do  hereby  declare  and  proclaim  that 
all  soldiers  now  absent  from  their  respective  regiments  without 
leave  who  shall  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  April,  in  the  year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  report  themselves 
at  any  rendezvous  designated  by  the  general  orders  of  the  War 
Department,  number  fifty-eight,  hereto  annexed,  may  be  re- 
stored to  their  respective  regiments  without  punishment,  ex- 
cept for  the  forfeiture  of  pay  and  allowances  during  their 
absence ;  and  all  who  do  not  return  within  the  time  above  speci- 
fied shall  be  arrested  as  deserters  and  punished  as  the  law 
provides. 

1 8th.  (To  Henry  Winter  Davis.)  There  will  be  in  the 
new  House  of  Representatives,  as  there  were  in  the  old,  some 
members  openly  opposing  the  war,  some  supporting  it  uncon- 
ditionally, and  some  supporting  it  with  "buts,"  and  "ifs,"  and 
"ands."  They  will  divide  on  the  organization  of  the  House — 
on  the  election  of  a  Speaker.    As  you  ask  my  opinion,  I  give 


342  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

it,  that  the  supporters  of  the  war  should  send  no  man  to  Con- 
gress who  will  not  pledge  himself  to  go  into  caucus  with  the 
unconditional  supporters  of  the  war,  and  to  abide  the  action 
of  such  caucus  and  vote  for  the  person  therein  nominated  for 
Speaker.  Let  the  friends  of  the  government  first  save  the 
government,  and  then  administer  it  to  their  own  liking.  This 
is  not  for  publication,  but  to  prevent  misunderstanding  of 
what  I  verbally  said  to  you  yesterday. 

20th.  Whereas,  it  appears  to  my  satisfaction  that  Thomas 
W.  Knox,  a  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Herald,  has  been 
by  the  sentence  of  a  court-martial  excluded  from  the  military 
department  under  command  of  Major-General  Grant,  and  also 
that  General  Thayer,  president  of  the  court-martial  which 
rendered  the  sentence,  and  Major-General  McClernand,  in 
command  of  a  corps  of  that  department,  and  many  other  re- 
spectable persons,  are  of  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Knox's  offense 
was  technical  rather  than  wilfully  wrong,  and  that  the  sen- 
tence should  be  revoked:  now,  therefore,  said  sentence  is 
hereby  so  far  revoked  as  to  allow  Mr.  Knox  to  return  to 
General  Grant's  headquarters,  and  to  remain  if  General  Grant 
shall  give  his  express  assent,  and  to  again  leave  the  department 
if  General  Grant  shall  refuse  such  assent. 

23rd.  (To  Governor  Seymour.)  You  and  I  are  sub- 
stantially strangers,  and  I  write  this  chiefly  that  we  may  be- 
come better  acquainted.  I,  for  the  time  being,  am  at  the  head 
of  a  nation  which  is  in  great  peril,  and  you  are  at  the  head  of 
the  greatest  State  of  that  nation.  As  to  maintaining  the  na- 
tion's life  and  integrity,  I  assume  and  believe  there  can  not  be 
a  difference  of  purpose  between  you  and  me.  If  we  should 
differ  as  to  the  means,  it  is  important  that  such  difference 
should  be  as  small  as  possible;  that  it  should  not  be  enhanced 
by  unjust  suspicions  on  one  side  or  the  other.  In  the  perform- 
ance of  my  duty  the  cooperation  of  your  State,  as  that  of 
others,  is  needed — in  fact,  is  indispensable.     This  alone  is  a 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  343 

sufficient  reason  why  I  should  wish  to  be  at  a  good  under- 
standing with  you.  Please  write  me  at  least  as  long  a  letter 
as  this,  of  course  saying  in  it  just  what  you  think  fit. 

24th.  (To  Henry  W.  Raymond  who  has  urged  him  not  to 
place  General  Hooker  in  high  command.)  That  is  all  true; 
Hooker  talks  badly ;  but  the  trouble  is,  he  is  stronger  with  the 
country  to-day  than  any  other  man. 

(Raymond  argues  that  Hooker's  strength  would  crumble  if 
his  real  attitude  of  antagonism  to  his  superiors  should  be  made 
public. ) 

The  country  would  not  believe  it;  they  would  say  it  was 
air  a  He. 

26th.  (To  Governor  Andrew  Johnson.)  I  am  told  you 
have  at  least  thought  of  raising  a  negro  military  force.  In 
my  opinion  the  country  now  needs  no  specific  thing  so  much 
as  some  man  of  your  ability  and  position  to  go  to  this  work. 
When  I  speak  of  your  position,  I  mean  that  of  an  eminent 
citizen  of  a  slave  State  and  himself  a  slaveholder.  The  colored 
population  is  the  great  available  and  yet  unavailed  of,  force  for 
restoring  the  Union.  The  bare  sight  of  50,000  armed  and 
drilled  black  soldiers  upon  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  would 
end  the  rebellion  at  once :  And  who  doubts  that  we  can  present 
that  sight  if  we  but  take  hold  in  earnest?  If  you  have  been 
thinking  of  it,  please  do  not  dismiss  the  thought. 

30th.  (A  Proclamation.)  And  whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of 
nations  as  well  as  of  men  to  own  their  dependence  upon  the 
overruling  power  of  God,  to  confess  their  sins  and  transgres- 
sions in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope  that  genuine 
repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and  pardon ;  and  to  recognize  the 
sublime  truth,  announced  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  proven 
by  all  history,  that  those  nations  only  are  blessed  whose  God  is 
the  Lord; 

And  insomuch  as  we  know  that  by  His  divine  law  nations, 
like  individuals,  are  subjected  to  punishments  and  chastise- 


344  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

ments  in  this  world,  may  we  not  justly  fear  that  the  awful 
calamity  of  civil  war  which  now  desolates  the  land  may  be  but 
a  punishment  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  presumptuous  sins,  to 
the  needful  end  of  our  national  reformation  as  a  whole  people? 
We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest  bounties  of  Heaven. 
We  have  been  preserved,  these  many  years,  in  peace  and  pros- 
perity. We  have  grown  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  power  as  no 
other  nation  has  ever  grown ;  but  we  have  forgotten  God.  We 
have  forgotten  the  gracious  hand  which  preserved  us  in  peace, 
and  multiplied  and  enriched  and  strengthened  us ;  and  we  have 
vainly  imagined,  in  the  deceit  fulness  of  our  hearts,  that  all 
these  blessings  were  produced  by  some  superior  wisdom  and 
virtue  of  our  own.  Intoxicated  with  unbroken  success,  we 
have  become  too  self-sufficient  to  feel  the  necessity  of  redeem- 
ing and  preserving  grace — too  proud  to  pray  to  the  God  that 
made  us. 

It  behooves  us,  then,  to  humble  ourselves  before  the 
offended  Power,  to  confess  our  national  sins,  and  to  pray  for 
clemency  and  forgiveness. 

All  this  being  done  in  sincerity  and  truth,  let  us  then  rest 
humbly  in  the  hope  authorized  by  the  divine  teachings,  that  the 
united  cry  of  the  nation  will  be  heard  on  high,  and  answered 
with  blessings  no  less  than  the  pardon  of  our  national  sins  and 
the  restoration  of  our  now  divided  and  suffering  country  to  its 
former  happy  condition  of  unity  and  peace. 

April  1st.  (To  General  D.  Hunter.)  I  am  glad  to  see 
the  accounts  of  your  colored  force  at  Jacksonville,  Florida.  I 
see  the  enemy  are  driving  at  them  fiercely,  as  is  to  be  expected. 
It  is  important  to  the  enemy  that  such  a  force  shall  not  take 
shape  and  grow  and  thrive  in  the  South,  and  in  precisely  the 
same  proportion  it  is  important  to  us  that  it  shall.  Hence  the 
utmost  caution  and  vigilance  is  necessary  on  our  part.  The 
enemy  will  make  extra  efforts  to  destroy  them,  and  we  should 
do  the  same  to  preserve  and  increase  them. 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  345 

3rd.  (To  General  Hooker.)  Our  plan  is  to  pass  Satur- 
day night  on  the  boat;  go  over  from  Acquia  Creek  to  your 
camp  Sunday  morning ;  remain  with  you  till  Tuesday  morning 
and  then  return.  Our  party  will  probably  not  exceed  six  per- 
sons of  all  sorts. 

nth.  My  opinion  is  that  just  now,  with  the  enemy  directly 
ahead  of  us,  there  is  eligible  route  for  us  into  Richmond;  and 
consequently  a  question  of  preference  between  the  Rappahan- 
nock route  and  the  James  River  route  is  a  contest  about  noth- 
ing. Hence  our  prime  object  is  the  enemy's  army  in  front  of 
us,  and  is  not  with  or  about  Richmond  at  all,  unless  it  be  inci- 
dental to  the  main  object. 

What  then  ?  The  two  armies  are  face  to  face,  with  a  nar- 
row river  between  them.  Our  communications  are  shorter  and 
safer  than  are  those  of  the  enemy.  For  this  reason  we  can, 
with  equal  power,  fret  him  more  than  he  can  us.  I  do  not 
think  that  by  raids  toward  Washington  he  can  derange  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  at  all.  He  has  no  distant  operations 
which  can  call  any  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  away ;  we  have 
such  operations  which  may  call  him  away,  at  least  in  part. 
While  he  remains  intact  I  do  not  think  we  should  take  the 
disadvantage  of  attacking  him  in  his  intrenchments ;  but  we 
should  continually  harass  and  menace  him,  so  that  he  shall 
have  no  leisure  nor  safety  in  sending  away  detachments.  If 
he  weakens  himself,  then  pitch  into  him. 

13th.  (To  Admiral  S.  F.  DuPont.)  Hold  your  position 
inside  the  bar  near  Charleston,  or,  if  you  shall  have  left  it, 
return  to  it,  and  hold  it  till  further  orders.  Do  not  allow  the 
enemy  to  erect  new  batteries  or  defenses  on  Morris  Island.  If 
he  has  begun  it  drive  him  out.  I  do  not  herein  order  you  to 
renew  the  general  attack.  That  is  to  depend  on  your  own 
discretion  or  a  further  order. 

(To  General  D.  Hunter  and  Admiral  S.  F.  DuPont,  near 
Charleston.)     We  still  hope  that  by  cordial  and  judicious  co- 


346  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

operation  you  can  take  the  batteries  on  Morris  Island  and 
Sullivan's  Island  and  Fort  Sumter.  But  whether  you  can  or 
not,  we  wish  the  demonstration  kept  up  for  a  time,  for  a  col- 
lateral and  very  important  object.  We  wish  the  attempt  to  be 
a  real  one,  (though  not  a  desperate  one)  if  it  affords  any 
considerable  chance  of  success.  But  if  prosecuted  as  a  dem- 
onstration only,  this  must  not  become  public  or  the  whole 
effect  will  be  lost. 

15th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  It  is  now  10:15  p.  m. 
An  hour  ago  I  received  your  letter  of  this  morning,  and  a  few 
moments  later  your  despatch  of  this  evening.  The  latter  gives 
me  considerable  uneasiness.  The  rain  and  mud  of  course 
were  to  be  calculated  upon.  General  S.  is  not  moving  rapidly 
enough  to  make  the  expedition  come  to  anything.  He  has  now 
been  out  three  days,  two  of  which  were  unusually  fair  weather, 
and  all  three  without  hindrance  from  the  enemy,  and  yet  he  is 
not  twenty-five  miles  from  where  he  started.  To  reach  his 
point  he  still  has  sixty  to  go,  another  river  (the  Rapidan)  to 
cross,  and  will  be  hindered  by  the  enemy.  By  arithmetic,  how 
many  days  will  it  take  him  to  do  it?  I  do  not  know  that  any 
better  can  be  done,  but  I  greatly  fear  it  is  another  failure 
already.     Write  me  often.     I  am  very  anxious. 

27th.     (To  General  J.  Hooker.)     How  does  it  look  now? 

2/th.  (To  General  Lane.)  The  Governor  of  Kansas  is 
here  asking  that  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  M.  Williams,  of  a  col- 
ored regiment  there,  shall  be  removed;  and  also  complaining 
of  the  military  interference  of  General  Blunt  in  the  late  election 
at  Leavenworth.,  I  do  not  know  how,  if  at  all,  you  are  con- 
nected with  these  things ;  but  I  wish  your  assistance  to  so  shape 
things  that  the  Governor  of  Kansas  may  be  treated  with  the 
consideration  that  is  extended  to  governors  of  other  States. 
We  are  not  forcing  a  regimental  officer  upon  any  other  gov- 
ernor against  his  protest.  Can  not  this  matter  be  somehow 
adjusted  ? 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  347 

May  2-4.    Chancellor sville. 

2nd.  General  Halleck  tells  me  he  has  a  despatch  from 
General  Schenck  this  morning  informing  him  that  our  forces 
have  joined,  and  that  the  enemy  menacing  Pennsylvania  will 
have  to  fight  or  run  to-day. 

3rd.  (To  General  D.  Butter  field.)  Where  is  General 
Hooker?    Where  is  Sedgwick?    Where  is  Stoneman? 

4th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  We  have  news  here  that 
the  enemy  has  re-occupied  heights  about  Fredericksburg.  Is 
that  true? 

6th.  12:23  p.  M.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  We  have, 
through  General  Dix,  the  contents  of  Richmond  papers  of  the 
fifth.  General  Dix's  despatch  in  full  is  going  to  you  by  Cap- 
tain Fox  of  the  navy.  The  substance  is  General  Lee's  despatch 
of  the  third,  Sunday,  claiming  that  he  had  beaten  you,  and 
that  you  were  then  retreating  across  the  Rappahannock;  dis- 
tinctly stating  that  two  of  Longstreet's  divisions  fought  you 
on  Saturday,  and  that  General  Paxton  was  killed,  Stonewall 
Jackson  severely  wounded,  and  Generals  Heth  and  A.  P.  Hill 
slightly  wounded.  The  Richmond  papers  also  stated,  upon 
what  authority  not  mentioned,  that  our  cavalry  have  been  at 
Ashland,  Hanover  Court  House,  and  other  points,  destroying 
several  locomotives  and  a  good  deal  of  other  property,  and 
all  the  railroad  bridges  to  within  five  (5)  miles  of  Richmond. 

(To  General  J.  Hooker.)  Just  as  I  had  telegraphed  you 
contents  of  Richmond  papers  showing  that  our  cavalry  has  not 
failed,  I  received  General  Butterfield's  of  11  a.  m.  yesterday. 
This,  with  the  great  rain  of  yesterday  and  last  night,  securing 
your  right  flank,  I  think  puts  a  new  face  upon  your  case ;  but 
you  must  be  the  judge. 

fth.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  The  recent  movement  of 
your  army  is  ended  without  effecting  its  object,  except,  per- 
haps, some  important  breakings  of  the  enemy's  communications. 


348  ABRAHAM    tINCOLN  [1863 

What  next?  If  possible,  I  would  be  very  glad  of  another 
movement  early  enough  to  give  us  some  benefit  from  the  fact 
of  the  enemy's  communication  being  broken;  but  neither  for 
this  reason  nor  any  other  do  I  wish  anything  done  in  despera- 
tion or  rashness.  An  early  movement  would  also  help  to  super- 
sede the  bad  moral  effect  of  the  recent  one,  which  is  said  to  be 
considerably  injurious.  Have  you  already  in  your  mind  a  plan 
wholly  or  partially  formed?  If  you  have,  prosecute  it  without 
interference  from  me.  If  you  have  not,  please  inform  me,  so 
that  I,  incompetent  as  I  may  be,  can  try  and  assist  in  the 
formation  of  some  plan  for  the  army. 

8th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  The  news  is  here  of  the 
capture  by  our  forces  of  Grand  Gulf,  a  large  and  very  impor- 
tant thing.  General  Willich,  an  exchanged  prisoner  just  from 
Richmond,  has  talked  with  me  this  morning.  He  was  there 
when  our  cavalry  cut  the  roads  in  that  vicinity.  He  says  there 
was  not  a  sound  pair  of  legs  in  Richmond,  and  that  our  men, 
had  they  known  it,  could  have  safely  gone  in  and  burned  every- 
thing and  brought  in  Jeff.  Davis,  captured  and  paroled  three 
or  four  hundred  men.  He  says  as  he  came  to  City  Point  there 
was  an  army  three  miles — Longstreet,  he  thought,  moving 
toward  Richmond.  Milroy  has  captured  a  despatch  of  General 
Lee,  in  which  he  says  his  loss  was  fearful  in  his  last  battle 
with  you. 

pth.  (To  General  J.  A.  Dix.)  It  is  very  important  for 
Hooker  to  know  exactly  what  damage  is  done  to  the  railroads 
at  all  points  between  Fredericksburg  and  Richmond.  As  yet 
we  have  no  word  as  to  whether  the  crossings  of  the  North  and 
South  Anna,  or  any  of  them,  have  been  touched.  There  are 
four  of  these  crossings;  that  is,  one  on  each  road  on  each 
stream.  You  readily  perceive  why  this  information  is  desired. 
I  suppose  Kilpatrick  or  Davis  can  tell.  Please  ascertain  fully 
what  was  done,  and  what  is  the  present  condition,  as  near  as 
you  can,  and  advise  me  at  once. 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  349 

nth.  (To  General  D.  Butter  field.)  About  what  distance 
is  it  from  the  observatory  we  stopped  at  last  Thursday  to  the 
line  of  enemies'  works  you  ranged  the  glass  upon  for  me  ? 

1 2th.  (To  Governor  Horatio  Seymour.)  Doctor  Swin- 
burne and  Mr.  Gillett  are  here,  having  been  refused,  as  they 
say,  by  the  War  Department,  permission  to  go  with  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac.  They  now  appeal  to  me,  saying  you  wish 
them  to  go.  I  suppose  they  have  been  excluded  by  a  rule  which 
experience  has  induced  the  department  to  deem  proper,  still 
they  shall  have  leave  to  go,  if  you  say  you  desire  it.  Please 
answer. 

13th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  If  it  will  not  interfere 
with  the  service,  nor  personally  incommode  you,  please  come 
up  and  see  me  this  evening. 

14th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  When  I  wrote  on  the 
7th  I  had  an  impression  that  possibly,  by  an  early  movement, 
you  could  get  some  advantage  from  the  supposed  facts  that 
the  enemy's  communications  were  disturbed,  and  that  he  was 
somewhat  deranged  in  position.  That  idea  has  now  passed 
away,  the  enemy  having  re-established  his  communications,  re- 
gained his  positions,  and  actually  received  reinforcements.  It 
does  not  now  appear  probable  to  me  that  you  can  gain  any- 
thing by  an  early  renewal  of  the  attempt  to  cross  the  Rappa- 
hannock. I  therefore  shall  not  complain  if  you  do  no  more 
for  a  time  than  to  keep  the  enemy  at  bay  and  out  of  other  mis- 
chief, by  menaces  and  occasional  cavalry  raids,  if  practicable, 
and  to  put  your  own  army  in  good  condition  again.  Still,  if, 
in  your  own  clear  judgment,  you  can  renew  the  attack  suc- 
cessfully, I  do  not  mean  to  restrain  you.  Bearing  upon  this 
last  point,  I  must  tell  you  that  I  have  some  painful  intima- 
tions that  some  of  your  corps  and  division  commanders  are 
not  giving  you  their  entire  confidence.  This  would  be  ruinous, 
if  true,  and  you  should  therefore,  first  of  all,  ascertain  the  real 
facts  beyond  all  possibility  of  doubt. 


35Q  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

15th.  (To  H.  T.  Blow,  C.  D.  Drake,  and  others.)  Your 
despatch  of  to-day  is  just  received.  It  is  very  painful  to  me 
that  you  in  Missouri  can  not  or  will  not  settle  your  factional 
quarrel  among  yourselves.  I  have  been  tormented  with  it  be- 
yond endurance  for  months  by  both  sides.  Neither  side  pays 
the  least  respect  to  my  appeals  to  your  reason.  I  am  now  com- 
pelled to  take  hold  of  the  case. 

Because  of  activities  'in  opposition  to  Federal  recruiting,  C. 
L.  Vallandigham  is  arrested  by  General  Burnside,  nozv  in  com- 
mand of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio.  Great  excitement  over 
this  arrest  which  is  at  once  made  an  issue  by  the  Democrats. 

ipth.  (To  Major-General  Burnside,  Commanding  De- 
partment of  Ohio.)  The  President  directs  that  without  delay 
you  send  C.  L.  Vallandigham  under  secure  guard  to  the  head- 
quarters of  General  Rosecrans,  to  be  put  by  him  beyond  our 
military  lines;  and  in  case  of  his  return  within  our  lines,  he  be 
arrested  and  kept  in  close  custody  for  the  term  specified  in  his 
sentence. 

20th.  (To  General  W.  S.  Rosecrans.)  The  President  de- 
sires to  know  whether  you  have  any  late  news  from  Grant,  or 
any  of  the  operations  on  the  Mississippi.  If  you  have,  please 
report. 

22nd.  We  have  news  here  in  the  Richmond  newspapers  of 
20th  and  2 1  st,  including  a  despatch  from  General  Joe  Johnston 
himself,  that  on  the  15th  or  16th — a  little  confusion  as  to  the 
day — Grant  beat  Pemberton  and  (W.  W.)  Loring  near  Ed- 
wards Station,  at  the  end  of  a  nine  hours'  fight,  driving  Pem- 
berton over  the  Big  Black  and  cutting  Loring  off  and  driving 
him  south  to  Crystal  Springs,  twenty-five  miles  below  Jack- 
son. Joe  Johnston  telegraphed  all  this,  except  about  Loring, 
from  his  camp  between  Brownsville  and  Lexington,  on  the 
1 8th.  Another  despatch  indicates  that  Grant  was  moving 
against  Johnston  on  the  18th. 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  351 

24th.  (To  Anson  Stager.)  Late  last  night  Fuller  tele- 
graphed you,  as  you  say,  that  ''the  stars  and  stripes  float  over 
Vicksburg  and  the  victory  is  complete."  Did  he  know  what 
he  said,  or  did  he  say  it  without  knowing  it?  Your  despatch 
of  this  afternoon  throws  doubt  upon  it. 

26th.  (To  Isaac  N.  Arnold.)  Your  letter  advising  me  to 
dismiss  General  Halleck  is  received.  If  the  public  believe,  as 
you  say,  that  he  has  driven  Fremont,  Butler,  and  Si  gel  from 
the  service,  they  believe  what  I  know  to  be  false;  so  that  if  I 
was  to  yield  to  it,  it  would  only  be  to  be  instantly  beset  by  some 
other  demand  based  on  another  falsehood  equally  gross.  You 
know  yourself  that  Fremont  was  relieved  at  his  own  request, 
before  Halleck  could  have  had  anything  to  do  with  it — went 
out  near  the  end  of  June,  while  Halleck  only  came  in  near  the 
end  of  July.  I  know  equally  well  that  no  wish  of  Halleck's 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  removal  of  Butler  or  Sigel.  Sigel, 
like  Fremont,  was  relieved  at  his  own  request,  pressed  upon 
me  almost  constantly  for  six  months,  and  upon  complaints  that 
could  have  been  made  as  justly  by  almost  any  corps  commander 
in  the  army,  and  more  justly  by  some.  So  much  for  the  way 
they  got  out.  Not  a  word  as  to  their  not  getting  back.  In  the 
early  spring,  General  Fremont  sought  active  service  again ;  and, 
as  it  seemed  to  me,  sought  it  in  a  very  good  and  reasonable 
spirit.  But  he  holds  the  highest  rank  in  the  Army,  except 
McClellan,  so  that  I  could  not  well  offer  him  a  subordinate 
command.  Was  I  to  displace  Hooker,  or  Hunter,  or  Rose- 
crans,  or  Grant,  or  Banks?  If  not,  what  was  I  to  do?  And, 
similar  to  this  is  the  case  of  both  the  others.  One  month  after 
General  Butler's  return  I  offered  him  a  position  in  which  I 
thought  and  still  think  he  could  have  done  himself  the  highest 
credit,  and  the  country  the  greatest  service,  but  he  declined  it. 
When  General  Sigel  was  relieved,  at  his  own  request  as  I  have 
said,  of  course  I  had  to  put  another  in  command  of  his  corps. 
Can  I  instantly  thrust  that  other  one  [out]  to  put  him  in  again? 


352  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

And  now  my  good  friend,  let  me  turn  your  eyes  upon 
another  point.  Whether  General  Grant  shall  or  shall  not  con- 
summate the  capture  of  Vicksburg,  his  campaign  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  month  up  to  the  twenty-second  day  of  it,  is  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  in  the  world.  His  corps  commanders  and 
division  commanders,  in  part,  are  McClernand,  McPherson, 
Sherman,  Steele,  Hovey,  Blair  and  Logan.  And  yet  taking 
General  Grant  and  these  seven  of  his  generals,  and  you  can 
scarcely  name  one  of  them  that  has  not  been  constantly  de- 
nounced, even  opposed,  by  the  same  men  who  are  now  so 
anxious  to  get  Halleck  out,  and  Fremont  and  Butler  and  Sigel 
in.  I  believe  no  one  of  them  went  through  the  Senate  easily, 
and  certainly  one  failed  to  get  through  at  all.  I  am  compelled 
to  take  a  more  impartial  and  unprejudiced  view  of  things. 
Without  claiming  to  be  your  superior,  which  I  do  not,  my 
position  enables  me  to  understand  my  duty  in  all  these  matters 
better  than  you  possibly  can,  and  I  hope  you  do  not  yet  doubt 
my  integrity. 

27th.  (To  General  John  M.  Scho field.)  Having  relieved 
General  Curtis  and  assigned  you  to  the  command  of  the  De- 
partment of  the  Missouri,  I  think  it  may  be  of  some  advantage 
for  me  to  state  to  you  why  I  did  it.  I  did  not  relieve  General 
Curtis  because  of  any  full  conviction  that  he  had  done  wrong 
by  commission  or  omission.  I  did  it  because  of  a  conviction 
in  my  mind  that  the  Union  men  of  Missouri,  constituting 
when  united  a  vast  majority  of  the  whole  people,  have  entered 
into  a  pestilent  factional  quarrel  among  themselves,  General 
Curtis,  perhaps  not  of  choice,  being  the  head  of  one  faction 
and  Governor  Gamble  that  of  the  other.  After  months  of 
labor  to  reconcile  the  difficulty,  it  seemed  to  grow  worse  and 
worse,  until  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  break  it  up  somehow ;  and  as  I 
could  not  remove  Governor  Gamble,  I  had  to  remove  General 
Curtis. 

Now  that  you  are  in  the  position,  I  wish  you  to  undo  noth- 


A*E54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  353 

ing  merely  because  General  Curtis  or  Governor  Gamble  did  it, 
but  to  exercise  your  own  judgment,  and  do  right  for  the  public 
interest.  Let  your  military  measures  be  strong  enough  to 
repel  the  invader  and  keep  the  peace,  and  not  so  strong  as  to 
unnecessarily  harass  and  persecute  the  people.  It  is  a  difficult 
role,  and  so  much  greater  will  be  the  honor  if  you  perform  it 
well.  If  both  factions,  or  neither,  shall  abuse  you,  you  will 
probably  be  about  right.  Beware  of  being  assailed  by  one  and 
praised  by  the  other. 

28th.  (To  General  W.  S.  Rosecrans.)  I  would  not  push 
you  to  any  rashness,  but  I  am  very  anxious  that  you  do  your 
utmost,  short  of  rashness,  to  keep  Bragg  from  getting  off  to 
help  Johnston  against  Grant. 

29th.  (To  General  A.  E.  Burnside.)  Your  despatch  of 
to-day  received.  When  I  shall  wish  to  supersede  you  I  will  let 
you  know.  All  the  Cabinet  regretted  the  necessity  of  arresting 
for  instance  Vallandigham — some  perhaps  doubting  there  was 
a  real  necessity  for  it,  but  being  done  all  were  for  seeing  you 
through  with  it. 

June  4th.  (To  Secretary  Stanton.)  I  have  received 
additional  despatches  which,  with  former  ones,  induce  me  to 
believe  we  should  revoke  or  suspend  the  order  suspending  the 
Chicago  Times,  and  if  you  concur  in  opinion,  please  have  it 
done. 

$tfa  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  Yours  of  to-day  was 
received  an  hour  ago.  So  much  of  professional  military  skill 
is  requisite  to  answer  it  that  I  have  turned  the  task  over  to 
General  Halleck.  He  promises  to  perform  it  with  his  utmost 
care.  I  have  but  one  idea  which  I  think  worth  suggesting  to 
you,  and  that  is,  in  case  you  find  Lee  coming  to  the  north  of  the 
Rappahannock,  I  would  by  no  means  cross  to  the  south  of  it. 
If  he  should  have  a  rear  force  at  Fredericksburg,  tempting  you 
to  fall  upon  it,  it  would  fight  in  intrenchments  and  have  you  at 
disadvantage,  and  so,  man  for  man,  worst  you  at  that  point, 


354  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

while  his  main  force  would  in  some  way  be  getting  an  advan- 
tage of  you  northward.  In  one  word,  I  would  not  take  any  risk 
of  being  entangled  upon  the  river,  like  an  ox  jumped  half  over 
a  fence  and  liable  to  be  torn  by  dogs  front  and  rear  without  a 
fair  chance  to  gore  one  way  or  kick  the  other.  If  Lee  would 
come  to  my  side  of  the  river,  I  would  keep  on  the  same  side, 
and  fight  him  or  act  on  the  defense,  according  as  might  be  my 
estimate  of  his  strength  relatively  to  my  own.  But  these  are 
mere  suggestions,  which  I  desire  to  be  controlled  by  the  judg- 
ment of  yourself  and  General  Halleck. 

8th.  We  have  despatches  from  Vicksburg  of  the  3rd. 
Siege  progressing.  No  general  fighting  recently.  All  well. 
Nothing  new  from  Port  Hudson. 

pth.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Think  you  had  better  put 
Tad's  pistol  away.     I  had  an  ugly  dream  about  him. 

ioth.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  Your  long  despatch  of 
to-day  is  just  received.  If  left  to  me,  I  would  not  go  south  of 
the  Rappahannock  upon  Lee's  moving  north  of  it.  If  you  had 
Richmond  invested  to-day  you  would  not  be  able  to  take  it  in 
twenty  days ;  meanwhile  your  communications,  and  with  them 
your  army,  would  be  ruined.  I  think  Lee's  army,  and  not  Rich- 
mond, is  your  true  objective  point.  If  he  comes  toward  the 
upper  Potomac  follow  on  his  flank  and  on  his  inside  track, 
shortening  your  lines  while  he  lengthens  his.  Fight  him,  too, 
when  opportunity  offers.  If  he  stays  where  he  is,  fret  him 
and  fret  him. 

nth.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Your  three  despatches 
received.  I  am  very  well  and  am  glad  to  know  that  you  and 
Tad  are  so. 

1 2th.  (To  Erastus  Corning  and  others.)  Your  letter  of 
May  19th,  inclosing  the  resolutions  of  a  public  meeting  held  at 
Albany,  New  York,  on  the  16th  of  the  same  month,  was 
received  several  days  ago. 

The  resolutions,  as  I  understand  them,  are  resolvable  into 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  355 

propositions — first,  the  expression  of  a  purpose  to  sustain  the 
cause  of  the  Union,  to  secure  peace  through  victory,  and  to 
support  the  Administration  in  every  constitutional  and  lawful 
measure  to  suppress  the  rebellion ;  and  secondly,  a  declaration 
of  censure  upon  the  Administration  for  supposed  unconstitu- 
tional action,  such  as  the  making  of  military  arrests.  And 
from  the  two  propositions  a  third  is  deduced,  which  is  that  the 
gentlemen  composing  the  meeting  are  resolved  on  doing  their 
part  to  maintain  our  common  Government  and  country,  despite 
the  folly  or  wickedness,  as  they  may  conceive,  of  any  Admin- 
istration. This  position  is  eminently  patriotic,  and  as  such  I 
thank  the  meeting,  and  congratulate  the  nation  for  it.  My 
own  purpose  is  the  same,  so  that  the  meeting  and  myself  have 
a  common  object,  and  can  have  no  difference,  except  in  the 
choice  of  means  or  measures  for  effecting  that  object. 

But  the  meeting,  by  their  resolutions,  assert  and  argue  that 
certain  military  arrests,  and  proceedings  following  them,  for 
which  I  am  ultimately  responsible,  are  unconstitutional.  I 
think  they  are  not. 

Take  the  particular  case  mentioned  by  the  meeting.  It  is  as- 
serted, in  substance,  that  Mr.  Vallandigham  was,  by  a  military 
commander,  seized  and  tried,  "for  no  other  reason  than  words 
addressed  to  a  public  meeting  in  criticism  of  the  course  of  the 
Administration,  and  in  condemnation  of  the  military  orders  of 
the  General/'  Now,  if  there  be  no  mistake  about  this,  if  this 
assertion  is  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth,  if  there  was  no  other 
reason  for  the  arrest,  then  I  concede  that  the  arrest  was  wrong. 
But  the  arrest,  as  I  understand,  was  made  for  a  very  different 
reason.  Mr.  Vallandigham  avows  his  hostility  to  the  war  on 
the  part  of  the  Union;  and  his  arrest  was  made  because  he 
was  laboring,  with  some  effect,  to  prevent  the  raising  of  troops, 
to  encourage  desertions  from  the  army,  and  to  leave  the 
rebellion  without  an  adequate  military  force  to  suppress  it.  He 
Was  not  arrested  because  he  was  damaging  the  political  prospects 


3$6  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

of  the  Administration  or  the  personal  interests  of  the 
commanding  general  but  because  he  was  damaging  the  army, 
upon  the  existence  and  vigor  of  which  the  life  of  the  nation 
depends.  He  was  warring  upon  the  military,  and  this  gave 
the  military  constitutional  jurisdiction  to  lay  hands  upon  him. 
If  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  not  damaging  the  military  power  of 
the  country,  then  his  arrest  was  made  on  mistake  of  fact,  which 
I  would  be  glad  to  correct  on  reasonably  satisfactory  evidence. 

I  understand  the  meeting  whose  resolutions  I  am  con- 
sidering to  be  in  favor  of  suppressing  the  rebellion  by  military 
force — by  armies.  Long  experience  has  shown  that  armies 
can  not  be  maintained  unless  desertion  shall  be  punished  by  the 
severe  penalty  of  death.  The  case  requires,  and  the  law  and 
the  Constitution  sanction  this  punishment.  Must  I  shoot  a 
simple-minded  soldier  boy  who  deserts,  while  I  must  not  touch 
a  hair  of  a  wily  agitator  who  induces  him  to  desert?  This  is 
none  the  less  injurious  when  effected  by  getting  a  father, 
or  brother,  or  friend  into  a  public  meeting,  and  there  working 
upon  his  feelings  till  he  is  persuaded  to  write  the  soldier  boy 
that  he  is  fighting  in  a  bad  cause,  for  a  wicked  administration 
of  a  contemptible  government,  too  weak  to  arrest  and  punish 
him  if  he  shall  desert.  I  think  that,  in  such  a  case,  to  silence  the 
agitator  and  save  the  boy  is  not  only  constitutional,  but  withal 
a  great  mercy. 

If  I  be  wrong  on  this  question  of  constitutional  power,  my 
error  lies  in  believing  that  certain  proceedings  are  constitutional 
when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety 
requires  them,  which  would  not  be  constitutional  when,  in  ab- 
sence of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  does  not  require 
them ;  in  other  words,  that  the  Constitution  is  not  in  its  appli- 
cation in  all  respects  the  same  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion 
involving  the  public  safety,  as  it  is  in  times  of  profound  peace 
and  public  security.  The  Constitution  itself  makes  the  distinc- 
tion, and  I  can  no  more  be  persuaded  that  the  government  can 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  357 

constitutionally  take  no  strong  measure  in  time  of  rebellion, 
because  it  can  be  shown  that  the  same  could  not  be  lawfully 
taken  in  time  of  peace,  than  I  can  be  persuaded  that  a  particular 
drug  is  not  good  medicine  for  a  sick  man,  because  it  can  be 
shown  to  not  be  good  food  for  a  well  one.  Nor  am  I  able  to 
appreciate  the  danger  apprehended  by  the  meeting,  that  the 
American  people  will,  by  means  of  military  arrests  during 
the  rebellion  lose  the  right  of  public  discussion,  the  liberty  of 
speech  and  the  press,  the  law  of  evidence,  trial  by  jury,  and 
habeas  corpus  throughout  the  indefinite  peaceful  future  which 
I  trust  lies  before  them,  any  more  than  I  am  able  to  believe 
that  a  man  could  contract  so  strong  an  appetite  for  emetics 
during  temporary  illness  as  to  persist  in  feeding  upon  them 
during  the  remainder  of  his  healthful  life. 

13th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  I  was  coming  down  this 
afternoon;  but  if  you  would  prefer  I  should  not,  I  shall  blame 
you  if  you  do  not  tell  me  so. 

14th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  So  far  as  we  can  make 
out  here,  the  enemy  have  Milroy  surrounded  at  Winchester, 
and  Tyler  at  Martinsburg.  If  they  could  hold  out  a  few  days, 
could  you  help  them?  If  the  head  of  Lee's  army  is  at  Martins- 
burg and  the  tail  of  it  on  the  plank  road  between  Fredericksburg 
and  Chancellorsville,  the  animal  must  be  very  slim  somewhere : 
could  you  not  break  him  ? 

(To  Major-General  Hooker.)  You  have  nearly  all  the 
elements  for  forming  an  opinion  whether  Winchester  is 
surrounded  that  I  have.  I  really  fear,  almost  believe,  it  is. 
No  communication  has  been  had  with  it  during  the  day,  either 
at  Martinsburg  or  Harper's  Ferry.  At  seven  p.  m.  we  also 
lost  communication  with  Martinsburg.  The  enemy  had  also 
appeared  there  some  hours  before.  At  nine  p.  m.  Harper's 
Ferry  said  the  enemy  was  reported  at  Berryville  and  Smith- 
field.  If  I  could  know  that  Longstreet  and  Ewell  moved  in 
that  direction  so  long  ago  as  you  stated  in  your  last,  then  I 


358  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

should  feel  sure  that  Winchester  is  strongly  invested.  It  is 
quite  certain  that  a  considerable  force  of  the  enemy  is  there- 
about, and  as  I  fear  it  is  an  overwhelming  one  compared  with 
Milroy's  I  am  unable  to  give  any  more  certain  opinion. 

(To  General  R.  C.  Schenck.)  Get  General  Milroy  from 
Winchester  to  Harper's  Ferry  if  possible.  He  will  be  gobbled 
up  if  he  remains,  if  he  is  not  already  past  salvation. 

15th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Tolerably  well.  Have  not  rode 
out  much  yet,  but  have  at  last  got  new  tires  on  the  carriage 
wheels  and  perhaps  shall  ride  out  soon. 

Lee  threatens  an  invasion  of  the  North. 

The  facts  are  now  known  here  that  Winchester  and 
Martinsburg  were  both  besieged  yesterday.  The  troops  from 
Martinsburg  have  got  into  Harper's  Ferry  without  loss.  Those 
from  Winchester  are  also  in,  having  lost  in  killed,  wounded 
and  missing  about  one-third  of  their  number.  Of  course  the 
enemy  holds  both  places,  and  I  think  the  report  is  authentic  that 
he  is  crossing  the  Potomac  at  Williamsport.  We  have  not 
heard  of  his  yet  appearing  at  Harper's  Ferry,  or  on  the  river 
anywhere  below. 

(A  Proclamation.)  Whereas,  the  armed  insurrectionary 
combinations  now  existing  in  several  of  the  States  are 
threatening  to  make  inroads  into  the  States  of  Maryland, 
Western  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio,  requiring 
immediately  an  additional  military  force  for  the  service  of  the 
United  States ; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy  thereof,  and  of  the  militia  of  the  several  States  when 
called  into  actual  service,  do  hereby  call  into  the  service  of  the 
United  States  100,000  militia  from  the  States  following, 
namely:    from  the  State  of  Maryland,  10,000;    from  the  State 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  359 

of  Pennsylvania,  50,000;  from  the  State  of  Ohio,  30,000; 
from  the  State  of  West  Virginia,  10,000,  to  be  mustered  into 
the  service  of  the  United  States  forthwith,  and  to  serve  for  the 
period  of  six  months  from  the  date  of  such  muster  into  said 
service,  unless  sooner  discharged. 

16th.  (To  General  J.  Hooker.)  I  send  you  this  by  the 
hand  of  Captain  Dahlgren.  Your  despatch  at  11:30  a.  m. 
to-day  is  just  received.  When  you  say  I  have  long  been  aware 
that  you  do  not  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the  major-general 
commanding,  you  state  the  case  much  too  strongly. 

You  do  not  lack  his  confidence  in  any  degree  to  do  you  any 
harm.  On  seeing  him,  after  telegraphing  you  this  morning,  I 
found  him  more  nearly  agreeing  with  you  than  I  was  myself. 
Surely  you  do  not  mean  to  understand  that  I  am  withholding 
my  confidence  from  you  when  I  happen  to  express  an  opinion 
(certainly  never  discourteously)  differing  from  one  of  your 
own. 

I  believe  Halleck  is  dissatisfied  with  you  to  this  extent  only, 
that  he  knows  that  you  write  and  telegraph  ("report,"  as  he 
calls  it)  to  me.  I  think  he  is  wrong  to  find  fault  with  this ;  but 
I  do  not  think  he  withholds  any  support  from  you  on  account 
of  it.  If  you  and  he  would  use  the  same  frankness  to  one 
another,  and  to  me,  that  I  use  to  both  of  you,  there  would  be  no 
difficulty.  I  need  and  must  have  the  professional  skill  of  both, 
and  yet  these  suspicions  tend  to  deprive  me  of  both. 

I  believe  that  you  are  aware  that  since  you  took  command 
of  the  army  I  have  not  believed  you  had  any  chance  to  effect 
anything  till  now.  As  it  looks  to  me,  Lee's  returning  toward 
Harper's  Ferry  gives  you  back  the  chance  that  I  thought 
McClellan  lost  last  fall.  Quite  possibly  I  was  wrong  both  then 
and  now ;  but,  in  the  great  responsibility  resting  upon  me,  I  can 
not  be  entirely  silent.  Now,  all  I  ask  is  that  you  will  be  in  such 
mood  that  we  can  get  into  our  action  the  best  cordial  judgment 
of  yourself  and  General  Halleck,  with  my  poor  mite  added,  if 


36o  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

indeed  he  and  you  shall  think  it  entitled  to  any  consideration  at 
all. 

(To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  It  is  a  matter  of  choice  with  yourself 
whether  you  come  home.  There  is  no  reason  why  you  should 
not  that  did  not  exist  when  you  went  away.  As  bearing  on  the 
question  of  your  coming  home,  I  do  not  think  the  raid  into 
Pennsylvania  amounts  to  anything  at  all. 

(To  Colonel  W.  S.  Bliss.)  Your  despatch  asking  whether 
I  will  accept  the  "Loyal  Brigade  of  the  North"  is  received.  I 
never  heard  of  that  brigade  by  name  and  do  not  know  where 
it  is,  yet  presuming  it  is  in  New  York,  I  say  I  will  gladly  accept 
it,  if  tendered  by  and  with  the  consent  and  approbation  of  the 
Governor  of  that  State;    otherwise  not. 

(To  General  J.  Hooker.)  To  remove  all  misunderstanding, 
I  now  place  you  in  strict  military  relation  to  General  Halleck 
of  a  commander  of  one  of  the  armies  to  the  general-in-chief  of 
all  the  armies. 

I  have  not  intended  differently,  but  as  it  seems  to  be 
differently  understood,  I  shall  direct  him  to  give  you  orders, 
and  you  to  obey  them. 

1 8th.  If  General  Brooks,  now  in  command  at  Pittsburgh, 
finds  any  person  or  persons  injuriously  affecting  his  military 
operations,  he  is  authorized  to  arrest  him  or  them  at  once,  if  the 
case  is  urgent.  If  not  urgent,  let  him  communicate  the 
particulars  to  me.  General  Brooks  is  the  man  to  now  manage 
the  matter  at  Pittsburgh. 

21st.  Operator  at  Leesburg  just  now  tells  us  that  firing 
commenced  about  seven  this  morning  in  direction  from  here  of 
Aldie's  Gap  and  Middleburg;  has  continued  all  day,  and  has 
receded  from  him,  and  is  apparently  now  about  White  Plains, 
was  very  heavy  this  morning,  but  lighter  now. 

22nd.  (To  General  John  M.  Scho field.)  Your  despatch, 
asking  in  substance,  whether,  in  case  Missouri  shall  adopt 
gradual  emancipation,   the   General   Government  will   protect 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  361 

slave-owners  in  that  species  of  property  during  the  short  time 
it  shall  be  permitted  by  the  State  to  exist  within  it,  has  been 
received.  Desirous  as  I  am  that  emancipation  shall  be  adopted 
by  Missouri,  and  believing  as  I  do  that  gradual  can  be  made 
better  than  immediate  for  both  black  and  white,  except  when 
military  necessity  changes  the  case,  my  impulse  is  to  say  that 
such  protection  would  be  given.  I  can  not  know  exactly  what 
shape  an  act  of  emancipation  may  take.  If  the  period  from 
the  initiation  to  the  final  end  should  be  comparatively  short, 
and  the  act  should  prevent  persons  being  sold  during  that 
period  into  more  lasting  slavery,  the  whole  would  be  easier. 

23rd.  (To  General  D.  N.  Couch.)  Have  you  any  reports 
of  the  enemy  moving  into  Pennsylvania?    And,  if  any,  what? 

25th.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  Honorable  William  Kellogg 
will  tell  you  plainly  what  he  wants ;  and  I  wish  him  obliged  so 
far  as  you  can  consistently  do  it.  Please  strain  a  point  for  him, 
if  you  do  not  have  to  strain  it  too  far. 

27th.  Hooker  having  resigned  because  of  friction  in  his 
army,  Meade  succeeds  him. 

2pth.  (To  M.  Birchard  and  others.)  The  resolutions  of 
the  Ohio  Democratic  State  Convention,  which  you  present  me, 
together  with  your  introductory  and  closing  remarks,  being  in 
position  and  argument  mainly  the  same  as  the  resolutions  of 
the  Democratic  meeting  at  Albany,  New  York,  I  refer  you  to 
my  response  to  the  latter  as  meeting  most  of  the  points  in  the 
former. 

You  ask,  in  substance,  whether  I  really  claim  that  I  may 
override  all  the  guaranteed  rights  of  individuals,  on  the  plea  of 
conserving  the  public  safety — when  I  may  choose  to  say  the 
public  safety  requires  it.  This  question,  divested  of  the  phrase- 
ology calculated  to  represent  me  as  struggling  for  an  arbitrary 
personal  prerogative,   is  either  simply  a  question  who  shall 


362  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

decide,  or  an  affirmation  that  nobody  shall  decide,  what  the 
public  safety  does  require  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion.  The 
Constitution  contemplates  the  question  as  likely  to  occur  for 
decision,  but  it  does  not  expressly  declare  who  is  to  decide  it. 
By  necessary  implication,  when  rebellion  or  invasion  comes,  the 
decision  is  to  be  made  from  time  to  time ;  and  I  think  the  man 
whom,  for  the  time,  the  people  have,  under  the  Constitution, 
made  the  commander-in-chief  of  their  army  and  navy,  is  the 
man  who  holds  the  power  and  bears  the  responsibility  of 
making  it.  If  he  uses  the  power  justly,  the  same  people  will 
probably  justify  him;  if  he  abuses  it,  he  is  in  their  hands  to 
be  dealt  with  by  all  the  modes  they  have  reserved  to  themselves 
in  the  Constitution. 

We  all  know  that  combinations,  armed  in  some  instances, 
to  resist  the  arrest  of  deserters  began  several  months  ago ;  that 
more  recently  the  like  has  appeared  in  resistance  to  the  enroll- 
ment preparatory  to  a  draft;  and  that  quite  a  number  of 
assassinations  have  occurred  from  the  same  animus.  These 
had  to  be  met  by  military  force,  and  this  again  has  led  to  blood- 
shed and  death.  And  now,  under  a  sense  of  responsibility 
more  weighty  and  enduring  than  any  which  is  merely  official, 
I  solemnly  declare  my  belief  that  this  hindrance  of  the  military, 
including  maiming  and  murder,  is  due  to  the  course  in  which 
Mr.  Vallandigham  has  been  engaged  in  a  greater  degree  than 
to  any  other  cause ;  and  it  is  due  to  him  personally  in  a  greater 
degree  than  to  any  other  one  man. 

With  all  this  before  their  eyes,  the  convention  you  represent 
have  nominated  Mr.  Vallandigham  for  Governor  of  Ohio,  and 
both  they  and  you  have  declared  the  purpose  to  sustain  the 
National  Union  by  all  constitutional  means;  but  of  course, 
they  and  you,  in  common  reserve  to  yourselves  to  decide  what 
are  constitutional  means,  and,  unlike  the  Albany  meeting,  you 
omit  to  state  or  intimate  that  in  your  opinion  an  army  is  a 
constitutional  means  of  saving  the  Union  against  a  rebellion, 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  363 

or  even  to  intimate  that  you  are  conscious  of  an  existing 
rebellion  being  in  progress  with  the  avowed  object  of 
destroying  that  very  Union.  At  the  same  time,  your  nominee 
for  Governor,  in  whose  behalf  you  appeal,  is  known  to  you  and 
to  the  world  to  declare  against  the  use  of  an  army  to  suppress 
the  rebellion.  Your  own  attitude,  therefore,  encourages 
desertion,  resistance  to  the  draft,  and  the  like,  because  it  teaches 
those  who  incline  to  desert  and  to  escape  the  draft  to  believe  it 
is  your  purpose  to  protect  them,  and  to  hope  that  you  will 
become  strong  enough  to  do  so. 

After  a  short  personal  intercourse  with  you,  gentlemen  of 
the  committee,  I  can  not  say  I  think  you  desire  this  effect  to 
follow  your  attitude;  but  I  assure  you  that  both  friends  and 
enemies  of  the  Union  look  upon  it  in  this  light.  It  is  a 
substantial  hope,  and  by  consequence  a  real  strength  to  the 
enemy.  If  it  is  a  false  hope  and  one  which  you  would  willingly 
dispel,  I  will  make  the  way  exceedingly  easy.  I  send  you 
duplicates  of  this  letter  in  order  that  you,  or  a  majority  of  you, 
may,  if  you  choose,  indorse  your  names  upon  one  of  them  and 
return  it  thus  indorsed  to  me  with  the  understanding  that 
those  signing  are  thereby  committed  to  the  following 
propositions  and  to  nothing  else : — 

1.  That  there  is  now  a  rebellion  in  the  United  States,  the 
object  and  tendency  of  which  is  to  destroy  the  National  Union; 
and  that,  in  your  opinion,  an  army  and  navy  are  constitutional 
means  for  suppressing  that  rebellion. 

2.  That  no  one  of  you  will  do  anything  which,  in  his  own 
judgment,  will  tend  to  hinder  the  increase,  or  favor  the 
decrease,  or  lessen  the  efficiency  of  the  army  or  navy,  while 
engaged  in  the  effort  to  suppress  that  rebellion ;    and, — 

3.  That  each  of  you  will,  in  his  sphere,  do  all  he  can  to 
have  the  officers,  soldiers,  and  seamen  of  the  army  and  navy, 
while  engaged  in  the  effort  to  suppress  the  rebellion,  paid,  fed, 
clad,  and  otherwise  well  provided  for  and  supported. 


364  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

And  with  the  further  understanding  that  upon  receiving 
the  letter  and  names  thus  indorsed,  I  will  cause  them  to  be 
published,  which  publication  shall  be,  within  itself,  a  revocation 
of  the  order  in  relation  to  Mr.  Vallandigham. 

It  will  not  escape  observation  that  I  consent  to  the  release 
of  Mr.  Vallandigham  upon  terms  not  embracing  any  pledge 
from  him  or  from  others  as  to  what  he  will  or  will  not 
do.  I  do  this  because  he  is  not  present  to  speak  for  himself 
or  to  authorize  others  to  "speak  for  him;  and  because  I 
should  expect  that  on  his  returning  he  would  not  put  himself 
practically  in  antagonism  with  the  position  of  his  friends.  But 
I  do  it  chiefly  because  I  thereby  prevail  on  other  influential 
gentlemen  of  Ohio  to  so  define  their  position  as  to  be  of 
immense  value  to  the  army — thus  more  than  compensating  for 
the  consequences  of  any  mistake  in  allowing  Mr.  Vallandigham 
to  return,  so  that,  on  the  whole,  the  public  safety  will  not  have 
suffered  by  it.  Still,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Vallandigham  and  all 
others,  I  must  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  do  so  much  as  the 
public  safety  may  seem  to  require. 

Few  things  are  so  troublesome  to  the  government  as  the 
fierceness  with  which  the  profits  in  trading  are  sought.  The 
temptation  is  so  great  that  nearly  everybody  wishes  to  be  in 
it ;  and,  when  in,  the  question  of  profit  controls  all,  regardless 
of  whether  the  cotton-seller  is  loyal  or  rebel,  or  whether  he  is 
paid  in  corn-meal  or  gunpowder.  The  officers  of  the  army, 
in  numerous  instances,  are  believed  to  connive  and  share  the 
profits,  and  thus  the  army  itself  is  diverted  from  fighting  the 
rebels  to  speculating  in  cotton ;  and  steamboats  and  wagons  in 
the  pay  of  the  government  are  set  to  gathering  and  carrying 
cotton,  and  the  soldiers  to  loading  cotton-trains  and  guarding 
them. 

30th.  I  really  think  the  attitude  of  the  enemy's  army  in 
Pennsylvania  presents  us  the  best  opportunity  we  have  had 
since  the  war  began. 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  365 

No  one  out  of  my  position  can  know  so  well  as  if  he  were 
in  it,  the  difficulties  and  involvments  of  replacing  General 
McClellan  in  command,  and  this  aside  from  any  imputations 
upon  him. 

I  judge  by  absence  of  news  that  the  enemy  is  not  crossing 

or  pressing  up  to  the  Susquehanna. 

July  ist-jrd.    Gettysburg, 

4th.  (To  Rear  Admiral  S.  P.  Lee.)  You  will  not  permit 
Mr.  Stephens  to  proceed  to  Washington  or  to  pass  the  blockade. 
He  does  not  make  known  the  subjects  to  which  the 
communication  in  writing  from  Mr.  Davis  relates,  which  he 
bears  and  seeks  to  deliver  in  person  to  the  President,  and  upon 
which  he  desires  to  confer.  Those  subjects  can  only  be  military 
or  not  military,  or  partly  both.  Whatever  may  be  military  will 
be  readily  received  if  offered  through  the  well-understood 
military  channel.  Of  course  nothing  else  will  be  received  by 
the  President  when  offered,  as  in  this  case,  in  terms  assuming 
the  independence  of  the  so-called  Confederate  States;  and  any- 
thing will  be  received,  and  carefully  considered  by  him,  when 
offered  by  any  influential  person  or  persons  in  terms  not 
assuming  the  independence  of  the  so-called  Confederate  States. 

The  President  announces  to  the  country  that  news  from  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  up  to  10  p.  m.  of  the  3rd,  is  such  as  to 
cover  that  army  with  the  highest  honor;  to  promise  a  great 
success  to  the  cause  of  the  Union,  and  to  claim  the  condolence 
of  all  for  the  many  gallant  fallen ;  and  that  for  this  he  especially 
desires  that  on  this  day,  He,  whose  will,  not  ours,  should  ever 
be  done,  be  everywhere  remembered  and  reverenced  with  pro- 
foundest  gratitude. 

6th.  (Soldiers'  Home,  Washington.)  I  left  the  telegraph 
office  a  good  deal  dissatisfied.  I  did  not  like  the  phrase,  in 
Orders,  No.  68,  I  believe,  "Drive  the  invaders  from  our  soil." 


366  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

Since  then  I  see  a  despatch  from  General  French,  saying  the 
enemy  is  crossing  his  wounded  over  the  river  in  flats,  without 
saying  why  he  does  not  stop  it,  or  even  intimating  a  thought 
that  it  ought  to  be  stopped.  Still  later,  another  despatch  from 
General  Pleasonton,  by  direction  of  General  Meade,  to  General 
French  stating  that  the  main  army  is  halted  because  it  is  believed 
the  rebels  are  concentrating  "on  the  road  toward  Hagerstown, 
beyond  Fairfield,"  and  is  not  to  move  until  it  is  ascertained  that 
the  rebels  intend  to  evacuate  Cumberland  Valley. 

There  things  all  appear  to  me  to  be  connected  with  a 
purpose  to  cover  Baltimore  and  Washington,  and  to  get  the 
enemy  across  the  river  again  without  a  further  collision,  and 
they  do  not  appear  connected  with  a  purpose  to  prevent  his 
crossing  and  to  destroy  him.  I  do  fear  the  former  purpose  is 
acted  upon  and  the  latter  is  rejected. 

yth.  We  have  certain  information  that  Vicksburg 
surrendered  to  General  Grant  on  the  4th  of  July.  Now  if 
General  Meade  can  complete  his  work,  so  gloriously  prosecuted 
thus  far,  by  the  literal  or  substantial  destruction  of  Lee's  army, 
the  rebellion  will  be  over. 

8th.  (To  Major-General  Meade.)  There  is  reliable 
information  that  the  enemy  is  crossing  at  Williamsport.  The 
opportunity  to  attack  his  divided  forces  should  not  be  lost. 
The  President  is  urgent  and  anxious  that  your  army  should 
move  against  him  by  forced  marches. 

(To  General  Lorenzo  Thomas.)  Your  despatch  of  this 
morning  to  the  Secretary  of  War  is  before  me.  The  forces  you 
speak  of  will  be  of  no  imaginable  service  if  they  can  not  go 
forward  with  a  little  more  expedition.  Lee  is  now  passing  the 
Potomac  faster  than  the  forces  you  mention  are  passing 
Carlisle.  Forces  now  beyond  Carlisle  to  be  joined  by  regiments 
still  at  Harrisburg,  and  the  united  force  again  to  join  Pierce 
somewhere,  and  the  whole  to  move  down  the  Cumberland 
Valley,  will,  in  my  unprofessional  opinion,  be  quite  as  likely  to 
capture  the  "man  in  the  moon"  as  any  part  of  Lee's  army. 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  367 

nth.  It  is  certain  that  after  three  days'  fighting  at 
Gettysburg,  Lee  withdrew  and  made  for  the  Potomac ;  that  he 
found  the  river  so  swollen  as  to  prevent  his  crossing,  that  he  is 
still  [on]  this  side,  near  Hagerstown  and  Williamsport, 
preparing  to  defend  himself;  and  that  Meade  is  close  upon 
him,  and  preparing  to  attack  him,  heavy  skirmishing  having 
occurred  nearly  all  day  yesterday. 

I  am  more  than  satisfied  with  what  has  happened  north  of 
the  Potomac  so  far,  and  am  anxious  and  hopeful  for  what  is  to 
come. 

13th.  (To  General  Grant.)  I  do  not  remember  that  you 
and  I  ever  met  personally.  I  write  this  now  as  a  grateful 
acknowledgment  for  the  almost  inestimable  service  you  have 
done  the  country.  I  wish  to  say  a  word  further.  When  you 
first  reached  the  vicinity  of  Vicksburg,  I  thought  you  should 
do  what  you  finally  did — march  the  troops  across  the  neck,  run 
the  batteries  with  the  transports,  and  thus  go  below;  and  I 
never  had  any  faith,  except  a  general  hope  that  you  knew 
better  than  I,  that  the  Yazoo  Pass  expedition  and  the  like  could 
succeed.  When  you  got  below  and  took  Port  Gibson,  Grand 
Gulf,  and  vicinity,  I  thought  you  should  go  down  the  river  and 
join  General  Banks,  and  when  you  turned  northward,  east  of 
the  Big  Black,  I  feared  it  was  a  mistake.  I  now  wish  to  make 
the  personal  acknowledgment  that  you  were  right  and  I  was 
wrong. 

(To  General  J.  M.  Scho field.)  I  regret  to  learn  of  the 
arrest  of  the  Democrat  editor.  Please  spare  me  the  trouble  this 
is  likely  to  bring. 

14th.     1  p.  M.     (Halleck  to  Meade  writes:) 
/  need  hardly  say  to  you  that  the  escape  of  Lee's  army 
without  another  battle  has  created  great  dissatisfaction  in  the 
mind  of  the  President,  and  it  will  require  an  active  and  ener- 


368  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

getic  pursuit  on  your  part  to  remove  the  impression  that  it 
(sic)  has  not  been  sufficiently  active  heretofore. 

(To  General  G.  G.  Meade.)  I  have  just  seen  your 
despatch  to  General  Halleek,  asking  to  be  relieved  of  your 
command  because  of  a  supposed  censure  of  mine.  I  am  very, 
very  grateful  to  you  for  the  magnificent  success  you  gave  the 
cause  of  the  country  at  Gettysburg;  and  I  am  sorry  now  to  be 
the  author  of  the  slightest  pain  to  you.  But  I  was  in  such  deep 
distress  myself  that  I  could  not  restrain  some  expression  of  it. 
I  have  been  oppressed  nearly  ever  since  the  battles  of 
Gettysburg  by  what  appeared  to  be  evidences  that  yourself  and 
General  Couch  and  General  Smith  were  not  seeking  a  collision 
with  the  enemy,  but  were  trying  to  get  him  across  the  river 
without  another  battle.  What  these  evidences  were,  if  you 
please,  I  hope  to  tell  you  at  some  time  when  we  shall  both  feel 
better. 

Again,  my  dear  general,  I  do  not  believe  you  appreciate 
the  magnitude  of  the  misfortune  involved  in  Lee's  escape.  He 
was  within  your  easy  grasp,  and  to  have  closed  upon  him 
would,  in  connection  with  our  other  late  successes,  have  ended 
the  war.  As  it  is,  the  war  will  be  prolonged  indefinitely.  If 
you  could  not  safely  attack  Lee  last  Monday,  how  can  you 
possibly  do  so  south  of  the  river,  when  you  take  with  you  very 
few  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  force  you  then  had  in  hand? 

13th.  (A  Proclamation.)  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God 
to  hearken  to  the  supplication  and  prayers  of  an  afflicted 
people,  and  to  vouchsafe  to  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United 
States  victories  on  land  and  on  sea  so  signal  and  so  effective 
as  to  furnish  reasonable  grounds  for  augmented  confidence 
that  the  union  of  these  States  will  be  maintained,  their  Con- 
stitution preserved,  and  their  peace  and  prosperity  permanently 
restored.  But  these  victories  have  been  accorded  not  without 
sacrifices  of  life,  limb,  health,  and  liberty,  incurred  by  brave, 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  369 

loyal  and  patriotic  citizens.  Domestic  affliction  in  every  part 
of  the  country  follows  in  the  train  of  these  fearful  bereave- 
ments. It  is  meet  and  right  to  recognize  and  confess  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Almighty  Father  and  the  power  of  His  hand 
equally  in  these  triumphs  and  in  these  sorrows. 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I  do  set  apart  Thursday, 
the  6th  day  of  August  next,  to  be  observed  as  a  day  for  national 
thanksgiving,  praise,  and  prayer. 

20th.  I  was  pained  to  be  informed  this  morning  by  the 
Provost-Marshal-General  that  New  Jersey  is  now  behind  twelve 
thousand,  irrespective  of  the  draft.  I  did  not  have  time  to 
ascertain  by  what  rules  this  was  made  out ;  and  I  shall  be  very 
glad  if  it  shall,  by  any  means,  prove  to  be  incorrect. 

21st.  I  desire  that  a  renewed  and  vigorous  effort  be  made 
to  raise  colored  forces  along  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi. 

y2j7'd.  (To  Governor  H.  R.  Gamble.)  My  private  sec- 
retary has  just  brought  me  a  letter,  saying  it  is  a  very  "cross" 
one  from  you  about  mine  to  General  Scho field,  recently  pub- 
lished in  the  Democrat.  As  I  am  trying  to  preserve  my  own 
temper  by  avoiding  irritants  so  far  as  practicable,  I  decline  to 
read  the  cross  letter.  I  think  fit  to  say,  however,  that  when 
I  wrote  the  letter  to  General  Scho  field,  I  was  totally  uncon- 
scious of  any  malice  or  disrespect  toward  you,  or  of  using 
any  expression  which  should  offend  you  if  seen  by  you.  I 
have  not  seen  the  document  in  the  Democrat,  and  therefore  can 
not  say  whether  it  is  a  correct  copy. 

(To  General  R.  C.  Schenck.)  Returning  to  the  Executive 
Room  yesterday,  I  was  mortified  to  find  you  were  gone,  leav- 
ing no  word  of  explanation.  I  went  down-stairs,  as  I  under- 
stood, on  a  perfect  understanding  with  you  that  you  would 
remain  till  my  return.  I  got  this  impression  distinctly  from 
"Edward,"  whom  I  believe  you  know.  Possibly  I  misunder- 
stood him.  I  had  been  very  unwell  in  the  morning,  and  had 
scarcely  tasted  food  during  the  day,  till  the  time  you  saw  me 


370  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

go  down.  I  beg  you  will  not  believe  I  have  treated  you  with 
intentional  discourtesy. 

24th.  (To  Postmaster-General  Blair.)  Yesterday  little 
indorsements  of  mine  went  to  you  in  two  cases  of  postmaster- 
ships  sought  for  widows  whose  husbands  have  fallen  in  the 
battles  of  this  war.  These  cases  occurring  on  the  same  day 
brought  me  to  reflect  more  attentively  than  I  had  before  done, 
as  to  what  is  fairly  due  from  us  here  in  the  dispensing  of 
patronage  toward  the  men  who,  by  fighting  our  battles,  bear 
the  chief  burden  of  saving  our  country.  My  conclusion  is 
that  other  claims  and  qualifications  being  equal,  they  have  the 
better  right ;  and  this  is  especially  applicable  to  the  disabled  sol- 
dier and  the  deceased  soldier's  family. 

25th.  (To  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.)  Certain  matters 
have  come  to  my  notice,  and  considered  by  me,  which  induce 
me  to  believe  that  it  will  conduce  to  the  public  interest  for  you 
to  add  to  the  general  instructions  given  to  our  naval  com- 
manders in  relation  to  contraband  trade  propositions  substan- 
tially as  follows,  to-wit: 

First,  You  will  avoid  the  reality,  and  as  far  as  possible  the 
appearance,  of  using  any  neutral  port,  to  watch  neutral  vessels, 
and  then  to  dart  out  and  seize  them  on  their  departure. 

Note.  Complaint  is  made  that  this  has  been  practised  at 
the  port  of  St.  Thomas,  which  practise,  if  it  exists,  is  dis- 
approved and  must  cease. 

Second.  You  will  not,  in  any  case,  detain  the  crew  of  a 
captured  neutral  vessel,  or  any  other  subject  of  a  neutral  power, 
on  board  such  vessel,  as  prisoners  of  war  or  otherwise,  except 
the  small  number  necessary  as  witnesses  in  the  prize  court. 

Note.  The  practise  here  forbidden  is  also  charged  to  exist, 
which,  if  true,  is  disapproved  and  must  cease. 

What  I  propose  is  in  strict  accordance  with  international 
law,  and  is  therefore  unobjectionable,  whilst,  if  it  does  no  other 
good,  it  will  contribute  to  sustain  a  considerable  portion  of  the 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  371 

present  British  ministry  in  their  places,  who,  if  displeased,  are 
sure  to  be  replaced  by  others  more  unfavorable  to  us. 

28th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Bob  went  to  Fort  Monroe  and 
only  got  back  to-day.  Will  start  to  you  at  1 1  a.  m.  to-morrow. 
All  well. 

30th.  The  government  of  the  United  States  will  give  the 
same  protection  to  all  its  soldiers;  and  if  the  enemy  shall  sell  or 
enslave  any  one  because  of  his  color,  the  offense  shall  be  pun- 
ishable by  retaliation  upon  the  enemy's  prisoners  in  our  pos- 
session. 

It  is  therefore  ordered  that  for  every  soldier  of  the  United 
States  killed  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  war,  a  rebel  soldier 
shall  be  executed,  and  for  every  one  enslaved  by  the  enemy  or 
sold  into  slavery,  a  rebel  soldier  shall  be  placed  at  hard  labor 
on  the  public  works,  and  continued  at  such  labor  until  the 
other  shall  be  released  and  receive  the  treatment  due  to  a 
prisoner  of  war. 

31st.  The  emancipation  proclamation  applies  to  Arkansas. 
I  think  it  is  valid  in  law,  and  will  be  so  held  by  the  courts. 
I  think  I  shall  not  retract  or  repudiate  it.  Those  who  shall 
have  tasted  actual  freedom  I  believe  can  never  be  slaves  or 
quasi-slaves  again.  For  the  rest,  I  believe  some  plan  substan- 
tially being  gradual  emancipation  would  be  better  for  both 
white  and  black.  The  Missouri  plan,  recently  adopted,  I  do 
not  object  to  on  account  of  the  time  for  ending  the  institution; 
but  I  am  sorry  the  beginning  should  have  been  postponed  for 
seven  years,  leaving  all  that  time  to  agitate  for  the  repeal  of 
the  whole  thing.  It  should  begin  at  once,  giving  at  least  the 
new-born  a  vested  interest  in  freedom  which  could  not  be 
taken  away. 

August  5th.  (To  General  N.  P.  Banks.)  Governor  Bout- 
well  read  me  to-day  that  part  of  your  letter  to  him  which  re- 
lates to  Louisiana  affairs.  While  I  very  well  know  what  I 
would  be  glad  for  Louisiana  to  do,  it  is  quite  a  different  thing 


Z72  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

for  me  to  assume  direction  of  the  matter.  I  would  be  glad 
for  her  to  make  a  new  constitution  recognizing  the  emanci- 
pation proclamation,  and  adopting  emancipation  in  those  parts 
of  the  State  to  which  the  proclamation  does  not  apply.  And 
while  she  is  at  it,  I  think  it  would  not  be  objectionable  for  her 
to  adopt  some  practical  system  by  which  the  two  races  could 
gradually  live  themselves  out  of  the  old  relation  to  each  other, 
and  both  come  out  better  prepared  for  the  new.  Education  for 
young  blacks  should  be  included  in  the  plan.  After  all,  the 
power  or  element  of  "contract"  may  be  sufficient  for  this 
probationary  period ;  and,  by  its  simplicity  and  flexibility,  may 
be  the  better. 

Jth.  (To  Governor  Seymour.)  I  can  not  consent  to  sus- 
pend the  draft  in  New  York  as  you  request,  because,  among 
other  reasons,  time  is  too  important. 

We  are  contending  with  an  enemy,  who,  as  I  understand, 
drives  every  able-bodied  man  he  can  reach  into  his  ranks,  very 
much  as  a  butcher  drives  bullocks  into  a  slaughter  pen.  No 
time  is  wasted;  no  argument  is  used.  This  produces  an  army 
which  will  soon  turn  upon  our  now  victorious  soldiers,  already 
in  the  field,  if  they  shall  not  be  sustained  by  recruits  as  they 
should  be. 

My  purpose  is  to  be  in  my  action  just  and  constitutional, 
and  yet  practical,  in  performing  the  important  duty  which  I 
am  charged — of  maintaining  the  unity  and  the  free  principles 
of  our  common  country. 

8th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  All  is  well  as  usual,  and  no  par- 
ticular trouble  anyway.  I  put  the  money  into  the  Treasury  at 
five  per  cent.,  with  the  privilege  of  withdrawing  it  any  time 
upon  thirty  days'  notice.  I  suppose  you  are  glad  to  learn 
this.  Tell  dear  Tad  poor  "Nanny  Goat"  is  lost,  and  Mrs. 
Cuthbert  and  I  are  in  distress  about  it.  The  day  you  left, 
Nanny  was  found  resting  herself  and  chewing  her  little  cud  on 
the  middle  of  Tad's  bed;  but  now  she's  gone!     The  gardener 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  373 

kept  complaining  that  she  destroyed  the  flowers  till  it  was  con- 
cluded to  bring  her  down  to  the  White  House.  This  was  done, 
and  the  second  day  she  had  disappeared  and  has  not  been  heard 
of  since.  This  is  the  last  we  know  of  poor  Nanny.  The 
weather  continues  dry  and  excessively  warm.  Nothing  very 
important  occurring. 

pth.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  I  see  by  a  despatch  of 
yours  that  you  incline  quite  strongly  toward  an  expedition 
against  Mobile.  This  would  appear  tempting  to  me  also,  were 
it  not  that  in  view  of  recent  events  in  Mexico  I  am  greatly  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  of  re-establishing  the  national 
authority  in  western  Texas  as  soon  as  possible. '  I  am  not  mak- 
ing an  order,  however ;  that  I  leave,  for  the  present  at  least,  to 
the  general-in-chief. 

A  word  upon  another  subject.  General  Thomas  has  gone 
again  to  the  Mississippi  Valley,  with  the  view  of  raising  col- 
ored troops.  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  you  are  doing 
what  you  reasonably  can  upon  the  same  subject.  I  believe  it 
is  a  resource  which  if  vigorously  applied  now  will  soon  close 
the  contest. 

1 2th,  I  am  constantly  pressed  by  those  who  scold  before 
they  think,  or  without  thinking  at  all,  to  give  commands  re- 
spectively to  Fremont,  McClellan,  Butler,  Sigel,  Curtis,  Hun- 
ter, Hooker,  and  perhaps  others,  when,  all  else  out  of  the  way, 
I  have  no  commands  to  give  them. 

17th.  (To  James  H.  Hackett.)  For  one  of  my  age  I 
have  seen  very  little  of  the  drama.  The  first  presentation  of 
Falstaff  I  ever  saw  was  yours  here,  last  winter  or  spring. 
Perhaps  the  best  compliment  I  can  pay  is  to  say,  as  I  truly  can, 
I  am  very  anxious  to  see  it  again.  Some  of  Shakespeare's 
plays  I  have  never  read,  while  others  I  have  gone  over  perhaps 
as  frequently  as  any  unprofessional  reader.  Among  the  latter 
are  Lear,  Richard  III.,  Henry  VIII.,  Hamlet,  and  especially 
Macbeth.     I  think  nothing  equals  Macbeth.     It  is  wonderful 


374  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

Unlike  you  gentlemen  of  the  profession,  I  think  the 
soliloquy  in  Hamlet  commencing  "Oh,  my  offense  is  rank," 
surpasses  that  commenchig  "To  be  or  not  to  be."  But  pardon 
this  small  attempt  at  criticism.  I  should  like  to  hear  you  pro- 
nounce the  opening  speech  of  Richard  III.  Will  you  not  soon 
visit  Washington  again?  If  you  do,  please  call  and  let  me 
make  your  personal  acquaintance. 

18 th.  (General  Butler,  driving  with  the  President,  at 
night,  without  military  escort,  asks  him — Is  it  known  that  you 
ride  thus  alone  at  night  out  to  the  Soldiers'  Home?) 

Oh,  yes,  when  business  detains  me  until  night.  I  do  go 
out  earlier,  as  a  rule. 

(Butler:  I  think  you  peril  too  much.  We  have  passed  a 
half-dozen  places  where  a  well-directed  bullet  might  have  taken 
you  off.) 

Oh,  assassination  of  public  officers  is  not  an  American 
crime. 

2 1st.  (To  General  G.  G.  Meade.)  At  this  late  moment  I 
am  appealed  to  in  behalf  of  William  Thompson  of  Company 
K,  Third  Maryland  Volunteers,  in  Twelfth  Army  Corps,  said 
to  be  at  Kelly's  Ford,  under  sentence  to  be  shot  to-day  as  a 
deserter.  He  is  represented  to  me  to  be  very  young,  with 
symptoms  of  insanity.  Please  postpone  the  execution  till 
further  order. 

26th.  The  signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters  again 
goes  unvexed  to  the  sea.  Thanks  to  the  great  Northwest  for 
it.  Nor  yet  wholly  to  them.  Three  hundred  miles  up  they 
met  New  England,  Empire,  Keystone,  and  Jersey,  hewing 
their  way  right  and  left.  The  Sunny  South,  too,  in  more  colors 
than  one,  also  lent  a  hand.  On  the  spot,  their  part  of  the 
history  was  jotted  down  in  black  and  white.  The  job  was  a 
great  national  one ;  and  let  none  be  banned  who  bore  an  hon- 
orable part  in  it.  And  while  those  who  have  cleared  the  great 
river  may  well  be  proud,  even  that  is  not  all.    It  is  hard  to  say 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  375 

that  anything  has  been  more  bravely  and  well  done  than  at 
Antietam,  Murphreesborough,  Gettysburg,  and  on  many  fields 
of  lesser  note.  Nor  must  Uncle  Sam's  web-feet  be  forgotten. 
At  all  the  watery  margins  they  have  been  present.  Not  only 
on  the  deep  sea,  the  broad  bay,  and  the  rapid  river,  but  also  up 
the  narrow,  muddy  bayou,  and  wherever  the  ground  was  a 
little  damp,  they  have  been  and  made  their  tracks.  Thanks  to 
all.  For  the  great  Republic — for  the  principle  it  lives  by  and 
keeps  alive — for  man's  vast  future — thanks  to  all. 

September  2nd.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  Knowing  your 
great  anxiety  that  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  shall  now  be 
applied  to  certain  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana,  which  were 
exempted  from  it  last  January,  I  state  briefly  what  appear  to 
me  to  be  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a  step.  The  original 
proclamation  has  no  constitutional  or  legal  justification,  except 
as  a  military  measure.  The  exemptions  were  made  because 
the  military  necessity  did  not  apply  to  the  exempted  localities. 
Nor  does  that  necessity  apply  to  them  now  any  more  than  it 
did  then.  If  I  take  the  step,  must  I  not  do  so  without  the 
arguments  of  military  necessity,  and  so  without  any  argument 
except  the  one  that  I  think  the  measure  politically  expedient 
and  morally  right  ?  Would  I  not  thus  give  up  all  footing  upon 
Constitution  or  law?  Would  I  not  thus  be  in  the  boundless 
field  of  absolutism?  Could  this  pass  unnoticed  or  unresisted? 
Could  it  fail  to  be  perceived  that  without  any  further  stretch 
I  might  do  the  same  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, and  Missouri,  and  even  change  any  law  in  any  State? 
Would  not  many  of  our  friends  shrink  away  appalled?  Would 
it  not  lose  us  the  elections  and  with  them  the  very  cause  we 
seek  to  advance? 

6  th.  Burnside  has  Kingston  and  Knoxville,  and  drove  the 
enemy  across  the  river  at  Loudon,  the  enemy  destroying  the 
bridge  there ;  captured  some  stores  and  one  or  two  trains ;  very 
little  fighting;  few  wounded  and  none  killed.  No  other 
news  of  consequence. 


376  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

nth.  (To  Governor  Andrew  Johnson.)  All  Tennessee 
is  now  clear  of  armed  insurrectionists.  You  need  not  to  be 
reminded  that  it  is  the  nick  of  time  for  reinaugurating  a  loyal 
State  government.  Not  a  moment  should  be  lost.  You  and  the 
cooperating  friends  there  can  better  judge  of  the  ways  and 
means  than  can  be  judged  by  any  here.  I  only  offer  a  few 
suggestions.  The  reinauguration  must  not  be  such  as  to  give 
control  of  the  State  and  its  representation  in  Congress  to  the 
enemies  of  the  Union,  driving  its  friends  there  into  political 
exile.  The  whole  struggle  for  Tennessee  will  have  been  profit- 
less to  both  State  and  nation  if  it  so  ends  that  Governor  John- 
son is  put  down  and  Governor  Llarris  is  put  up.  It  must  not 
be  so.  You  must  have  it  otherwise.  Let  the  reconstruction  be 
the  work  of  such  men  only  as  can  be  trusted  for  the  Union. 

15th.  (A  Proclamation.)  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  make  known  to 
all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  is  suspended  throughout  the  United  States  in  the 
several  cases  before  mentioned,  and  that  this  suspension  will 
continue  throughout  the  duration  of  the  said  rebellion,  or  until 
this  proclamation  shall,  by  a  subsequent  one  to  be  issued  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  be  modified  or  revoked. 

(To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  If  I  did  not  misunderstand 
General  Meade's  last  despatch,  he  posts  you  on  facts  as  well 
as  he  can,  and  desires  your  views  and  those  of  the  government 
as  to  what  he  shall  do.  My  opinion  is  that  he  should  move 
upon  Lee  at  once  in  manner  of  general  attack,  leaving  to  de- 
velopments whether  he  will  make  it  a  real  attack.  I  think  this 
would  develop  Lee's  real  condition  and  purposes  better  than 
the  cavalry  alone  can  do.  Of  course  my  opinion  is  not  to 
control  you  and  General  Meade. 

ipth.  (To  General  H.  W.  Halleck.)  By  General  Meade's 
despatch  to  you  of  yesterday,  it  appears  that  he  desires  your 
views  and  those  of  the  government  as  to  whether  he  shall  ad- 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  377 

vance  upon  the  enemy.  I  am  not  prepared  to  order  or  even 
advise  an  advance  in  this  case,  wherein  I  know  so  little  of  par- 
ticulars, and  wherein  he,  in  the  field,  thinks  the  risk  is  so 
great  and  the  promise  of  advantage  so  small. 

To  avoid  misunderstanding,  let  me  say  that  to  attempt  to 
fight  the  enemy  slowly  back  into  his  intrenchments  at  Rich- 
mond, and  then  to  capture  him,  is  an  idea  I  have  been  trying 
to  repudiate  for  quite  a  year. 

My  judgment  is  so  clear  against  it  that  I  would  scarcely 
allow  the  attempt  to  be  made  if  the  general  in  command  should 
desire  to  make  it.  My  last  attempt  upon  Richmond  was  to  get 
McClellan,  when  he  was  nearer  there  than  the  enemy  was,  to 
run  in  ahead  of  him.  Since  then  I  have  constantly  desired  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  to  make  Lee's  army,  and  not  Richmond, 
its  objective  point.  If  our  army  can  not  fall  upon  the  enemy 
and  hurt  him  where  he  is,  it  is  plain  to  me  it  can  gain  nothing 
by  attempting  to  follow  him  over  a  succession  of  intrenched 
lines  into  a  fortified  city. 

ipth-20th.     Chickamanga. 

20th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  I  neither  see  nor  hear  anything 
of  sickness  here  now,  though  there  may  be  much  without  my 
knowing  it.  I  wish  you  to  stay,  or  come  just  as  it  is  most 
agreeable  to  yourself. 

2 1  st.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  The  air  is  so  clear  and  cool 
and  apparently  healthy  that  I  would  be  glad  for  you  to  come. 
Nothing  very  particular  but  I  would  be  glad  to  see  you  and 
Tad. 

I  think  it  very  important  for  General  Rosecrans  to  hold  his 
position  at  or  about  Chattanooga,  because  if  held  from  that 
place  to  Cleveland,  both  inclusive,  it  keeps  all  Tennessee  clear 
of  the  enemy,  and  also  breaks  one  of  his  most  important  rail- 


378  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

road  lines.  To  prevent  these  consequences  is  so  vital  to  his 
cause  that  he  can  not  give  up  the  effort  to  dislodge  us  from 
the  position,  thus  bringing  him  to  us  and  saving  us  the  labor, 
expense,  and  hazard  of  going  farther  to  find  him,  and  also 
giving  us  the  advantage  of  choosing  our  own  ground  and 
preparing  it  to  fight  him  upon.  The  details  must,  of  course, 
be  left  to  General  Rosecrans,  while  we  must  furnish  him  the 
means  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability. 

(To  General  Burnside.)  Go  to  Rosecrans  with  your  force 
without  a  moment's  delay. 

(To  General  W.  S.  Rosecrans.)  Be  of  good  cheer.  We 
have  unabated  confidence  in  you  and  in  your  soldiers  and 
officers.  In  the  main  you  must  be  the  judge  as  to  what  is  to 
be  done.  If  I  wrere  to  suggest,  I  would  say  save  your  army 
by  taking  strong  positions  until  Burnside  joins  you,  when  I 
hope  you  can  turn  the  tide.  I  think  you  had  better  send  a 
courier  to  Burnside  to  hurry  him  up.  We  can  not  reach  him 
by  telegraph.  We  suppose  some  force  is  going  to  you  from 
Corinth,  but  for  want  of  communication  we  do  not  know  how 
they  are  getting  along.  We  shall  do  our  utmost  to  assist  you. 
Send  us  your  present  posting. 

22nd.  8:30  p.  m.  (To  Rosecrans.)  We  have  not  a  word 
here  as  to  the  whereabouts  or  condition  of  your  army  up  to  a 
later  hour  than  sunset  Sunday,  the  20th.  Your  despatches 
to  me  of  9  a.  m.  and  to  General  Halleck  of  2  p.  m.  yesterday, 
tejl  us  nothing  later  on  those  points.  Please  relieve  my  anxiety 
as  to  the  position  and  condition  of  your  army  up  to  the  last 
moment. 

23rd.  9:15  A.  M.  (To  Rosecrans.)  Below  is  Bragg's 
despatch  as  found  in  the  Richmond  papers.  You  see  he  does 
not  claim  so  many  prisoners  or  captured  guns  as  you  were 
inclined  to  concede.  He  also  confesses  to  heavy  loss.  An  ex- 
changed general  of  ours  leaving  Richmond  yesterday  says  two 
of  Longstreet's  divisions  and  his  entire  artillery  and  two  o£ 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  379 

Pickett's  brigades  and  Wise's  legion  have  gone  to  Tennessee. 
He  mentions  no  other. 

24th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  We  now  have  a  tolerably 
accurate  summing  up  of  the  late  battle  between  Rosecrans  and 
Bragg.  The  result  is  that  we  are  worsted,  if  at  all,  only  in 
the  fact  that  we,  after  the  main  fighting  was  over,  yielded 
the  ground,  thus  leaving  considerable  of  our  artillery  and 
wounded  to  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands,  for  which  we  got 
nothing  in  turn.  We  lost  in  general  officers  1  killed  and  3 
or  4  wounded,  all  brigadiers,  while,  according  to  the  rebel 
accounts  which  we  have,  they  lost  6  killed  and  8  wounded.  Of 
the  killed  1  major-general  and  5  brigadiers,  including  your 
brother-in-law,  Helm;  and  of  the  wounded  3  major-generals 
and  5  brigadiers.  This  list  may  be  reduced  to  two  in  number 
by  corrections  of  confusion  in  names.  At  1 1  40  a.  m.  yester- 
day General  Rosecrans  telegraphed  from  Chattanooga,  "We 
hold  this  point,  and  I  can  not  be  dislodged  except  by  very 
superior  numbers  and  after  a  great  battle."  A  despatch  leav- 
ing there  after  night  yesterday  says :     "No  fight  to-day." 

25th.  (To  General  McCallum.)  I  have  sent  to  General 
Meade,  by  telegraph,  to  suspend  the  execution  of  Daniel  Sul- 
livan of  Company  E,  Thirteenth  Massachusetts,  which  was  to 
be  to-day,  but  understanding  there  is  an  interruption  on  the 
line,  may  I  beg  you  to  send  this  to  him  by  the  quickest  mode 
in  your  power? 

27th.  (To  Burnside.)  Hold  your  present  positions,  and 
send  Rosecrans  what  you  can  spare,  in  the  quickest  and  safest 
way.  In  the  meantime  hold  the  remainder  as  nearly  in  read- 
iness to  go  to  him  as  you  can  consistently  with  the  duty  it  is 
to  perform  while  it  remains. 

28th.  (To  Rosecrans.)  We  are  sending  you  two  small 
corps,  one  under  General  Howard  and  one  under  General  Slo- 
cum,  and  the  whole  under  General  Hooker.  Unfortunately  the 
relations  between  Generals  Hooker  and  Slocum  are  not  such 


380  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

as  to  promise  good,  if  their  present  relative  positions  remain. 
Therefore,  let  me  beg — almost  enjoin  upon  you — that  on  their 
reaching  you,  you  will  make  a  transposition  by  which  Gen- 
eral Slocum  with  his  corps  may  pass  from  under  the  command 
of  General  Hooker,  and  General  Hooker,  in  turn,  receive  some 
other  equal  force.  It  is  important  for  this  to  be  done,  though 
we  could  not  well  arrange  it  here. 

October  1st.  (To  General  J.  M.  Schofield.)  Under  your 
recent  order,  which  I  have  approved,  you  will  only  arrest  indi- 
viduals and  suppress  assemblies  or  newspapers  (in  Missouri) 
when  they  may  be  working  palpable  injury  to  the  military  in 
your  charge,  and  in  no  other  case  will  you  interfere  with  the 
expression  of  opinion  in  any  form  or  allow  it  to  be  interfered 
with  violently  by  others.  In  this  you  have  a  discretion  to  exer- 
cise, with  great  caution,  calmness,  and  forbearance.  With 
the  matters  of  removing  the  inhabitants  of  certain  counties 
en  masse,  and  of  removing  certain  individuals  from  time  to 
time  who  are  supposed  to  be  mischievous,  I  am  not  now  inter- 
fering, but  am  leaving  to  your  own  discretion.  Nor  am  I 
interfering  with  what  may  still  seem  to  you  to  be  necessary 
restrictions  upon  trade  and  intercourse.  I  think  proper,  how- 
ever, to  enjoin  upon  you  the  following:  Allow  no  part  of 
the  military  under  your  command  to  be  engaged  in  either 
returning  fugitive  slaves  or  in  forcing  or  enticing  slaves  from 
their  homes,  and,  so  far  as  practicable,  enforce  the  same  for- 
bearance upon  the  people. 

3rd.  (A  Proclamation.)  The  year  that  is  drawing  toward 
its  close  has  been  filled  with  the  blessings  of  fruitful  fields 
and  healthful  skies.  To  these  bounties,  which  are  so  con- 
stantly enjoyed  that  we  are  prone  to  forget  the  source  from 
which  they  come,  others  have  been  added,  which  are  of  so 
extraordinary  a  nature  that  they  can  not  fail  to  penetrate  and 
soften  the  heart  which  is  habitually  insensible  to  the  ever- 
Wfttchful  providence  of  Almighty  God, 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  381 

In  the  midst  of  a  civil  war  of  unequal  magnitude  and 
severity,  which  has  sometimes  seemed  to  foreign  states  to 
invite  and  provoke  their  aggressions,  peace  has  been  preserved 
with  all  nations,  order  has  been  maintained,  the  laws  have 
been  respected  and  obeyed,  and  harmony  has  prevailed  every- 
where, except  in  the  theater  of  military  conflict,  while  that 
theater  has  been  greatly  contracted  by  the  advancing  armies 
and  navies  of  the  Union. 

No  human  counsel  hath  devised,  nor  hath  any  mortal  hand 
worked  out  these  great  things.  They  are  the  gracious  gifts  of 
the  most  high  God,  who,  while  dealing  with  us  in  anger  for 
our  sins,  hath  nevertheless  remembered  mercy. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  fit  and  proper  that  they  should  be 
solemnly,  reverently,  and  gratefully  acknowledged  as  with  one 
heart  and  one  voice  by  the  whole  American  people.  I  do,  there- 
fore, invite  my  fellow-citizens  in  every  part  of  the  United 
States,  and  also  those  who  are  at  sea  and  those  who  are  so- 
journing in  foreign  lands,  to  set  apart  and  observe  the  last 
Thursday  of  November  next  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  and 
praise  to  our  beneficent  Father  who  dwelleth  in  the  heavens. 

4th.  If  we  can  hold  Chattanooga  and  East  Tennessee,  I 
think  the  rebellion  must  dwindle  and  die. 

5th.  We  are  in  civil  war.  In  such  cases  there  always  is  a 
main  question ;  but  in  this  case  that  question  is  a  perplexing 
compound — Union  and  slavery.  It  thus  becomes  a  question 
not  of  two  sides  merely,  but  of  at  least  four  sides,  even  among 
those  who  are  for  the  Union,  saying  nothing  of  those  who  are 
against  it.  Thus,  those  who  are  for  the  Union  with,  but  not 
without,  slavery;  those  for  it  without,  but  not  with;  those  for 
it  with  or  without,  but  prefer  it  with;  and  those  for  it  with  or 
without,  but  prefer  it  without.  Among  these,  again,  is  a  sub- 
division of  those  who  are  for  gradual,  but  not  for  immediate, 
and  those  who  are  for  immediate,  but  not  for  gradual,  extinc- 
tion of  slavery.    It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  all  these  shades  of 


382  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

opinion,  and  even  more,  may  be  sincerely  entertained  by  honest 
and  truthful  men.  Yet,  all  being  for  the  Union,  by  reason  of 
these  differences  each  will  prefer  a  different  way  of  sustain- 
ing the  Union.  At  once  sincerity  is  questioned,  and  motives 
are  assailed.  Actual  war  coming,  blood  grows  hot,  and  blood 
is  spilled.  Thought  is  forced  from  old  channels  into  con- 
fusion. Deception  breeds  and  thrives.  Confidence  dies  and 
universal  suspicion  reigns.  Each  man  feels  an  impulse  to  kill 
his  neighbor,  lest  he  be  first  called  by  him.  Revenge  and  re- 
taliation follow.  And  all  this,  as  before  said,  may  be  among 
honest  men  only;  but  this  is  not  all.  Every  foul  bird  comes 
abroad  and  every  dirty  reptile  rises  up. 

To  restrain  contraband  intelligence  and  trade,  a  system 
of  searches,  seizures,  permits,  and  passes  had  been  introduced 
(in  Missouri)  by  General  Fremont.  When  General  Halleck 
came,  he  found  and  continued  this  system,  and  added  an  order, 
applicable  to  some  parts  of  the  State,  to  levy  and  collect  con- 
tributions from  noted  rebels,  to  compensate  losses  and  relieve 
destitution  caused  by  the  rebellion.  The  action  of  General 
Fremont  and  General  Halleck,  as  stated,  constituted  a  sort  of 
system,  which  General  Curtis  found  in  full  operation  when  he 
took  command  of  the  department.  That  there  was  a  necessity 
for  something  of  the  sort  was  clear,  but  that  it  could  only  be 
justified  by  stern  necessity  and  that  it  was  liable  to  great  abuse 
in  administration,  was  equally  clear.  Agents  to  execute  it, 
contrary  to  the  great  prayer,  were  led  into  temptation.  Some 
might,  while  others  would  not,  resist  that  temptation.  It  was 
not  possible  to  hold  any  to  a  very  strict  accountability,  and 
those  yielding  to  the  temptation  would  sell  permits  and  passes 
to  those  who  would  pay  most  and  most  readily  for  them;  and 
would  seize  property  and  collect  levies  in  the  aptest  way  to 
fill  their  own  pockets.  Money  being  the  object,  the  man  having 
money,  whether  loyal  or  disloyal,  would  be  a  victim.  This 
practise  doubtless  existed  to  some  extent,  and  it  was  a  real 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  383 

additional  evil  that  it  could  be  and  was  plausibly  charged  to 
exist  in  greater  extent  than  it  did. 

1 2th.  (To  Rosecrans.)  As  I  understand,  Burnside  is 
menaced  from  the  east,  and  so  can  not  go  to  you  without 
surrendering  East  Tennessee.  I  now  think  the  enemy  will 
not  attack  Chattanooga  and  I  think  you  will  have  to  look 
out  for  his  making  a  concentrated  drive  at  Burnside.  You  and 
Burnside  now  have  him  by  the  throat,  and  he  must  break  your 
hold  or  perish.  I  therefore  think  you  better  try  to  hold  the 
road  up  to  Kingston,  leaving  Burnside  to  what  is  above  there. 
Sherman  is  coming  to  you,  though  gaps  in  the  telegraph  pre- 
vent our  knowing  how  far  he  is  advanced.  He  and  Hooker 
will  so  support  you  on  the  west  and  northwest  as  to  enable  you 
to  look  east  and  northeast. 

13th.  The  enemy  some  days  ago  made  a  movement,  ap- 
parently to  turn  General  Meade's  right.  This  led  to  a  maneu- 
vering of  the  two  armies  and  to  pretty  heavy  skirmishing  on 
Saturday,  Sunday  and  Monday.  We  have  frequent  despatches 
from  General  Meade,  and  up  to  10  o'clock  last  night  nothing 
had  happened  giving  either  side  any  marked  advantage. 

14th.  (To  Thurlow  Weed.)  I  have  been  brought  to  fear 
recently  that  somehow,  by  commission  or  omission,  I  have 
caused  you  some  degree  of  pain.  I  have  never  entertained  an 
unkind  feeling  or  a  disparaging  thought  toward  you;  if  I 
have  said  or  done  anything  which  has  been  construed  into 
such  unkindness  or  disparagement,  it  has  been  misconstrued.  I 
am  sure  if  we  could  meet  we  would  not  part  with  any  un- 
pleasant impression  on  either  side. 

16th.  (To  T.  W.  Sweeney.)  Tad  is  teasing  me  to  have 
you  forward  his  pistol  to  him. 

iyth.  (A  Proclamation.)  Whereas,  the  term  of  service  of 
a  part  of  the  volunteer  forces  of  the  United  States  will 
expire  during  the  coming  year;  and  whereas,  in  addition 
to  the  men  raised  by  the  present  draft,  it  is  deemed  expedient 


384  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

to  call  out  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers  to  serve  for 
three  years  of  the  war,  not,  however,  exceeding  three  years; 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy 
thereof,  and  of  the  militia  of  the  several  States  when  called 
into  actual  service,  do  issue  this,  my  proclamation,  calling  upon 
the  Governments  of  the  different  States  to  raise  and  have  en- 
listed into  the  United  States  service,  for  the  various  com- 
panies and  regiments  in  the  field  from  their  respective  States, 
their  quotas  of  three  hundred  thousand  men. 

18 th.  (To  John  Hay,  discussing  Chase's  secret  attempt 
to  supplant  Lincoln  as  Republican  leader.)  It  is  very  bad 
taste  but  I  am  determined  to  shut  my  eyes  to  all  these  per- 
formances. Mr.  Chase  makes  a  good  secretary  and  I  shall 
keep  him  where  he  is.  If  he  becomes  President,  all  right. 
I  hope  we  may  never  have  a  worse  man.  I  have  all 
along  seen  clearly  his  plan  of  strengthening  himself.  When- 
ever he  sees  that  an  important  matter  is  troubling  me,  if  I  am 
compelled  to  decide  it  any  way  to  give  offense  to  a  man  of 
some  influence,  he  always  ranges  himself  in  opposition  to  me 
and  persuades  the  victim  that  he,  Chase,  would  have  arranged 
it  differently.  I  am  entirely  indifferent  as  to  his  failure  or 
success  in  these  schemes  so  long  as  he  does  his  duty  as  head 
of  the  Treasury  department. 

24th.  (To  Halleck.)  Taking  all  our  information  to- 
gether, I  think  it  probable  that  Ewell's  corps  has  started  for 
East  Tennessee  by  way  of  Abingdon,  marching  last  Monday, 
say,  from  Meade's  front  directly  to  the  railroad  at  Charlottes- 
ville. 

First,  the  object  of  Lee's  recent  movement  against  Meade; 
his  destruction  of  the  Alexandria  and  Orange  Railroad,  and 
subsequent  withdrawal,  without  more  motive,  not  otherwise 
apparent,  would  be  explained  by  the  hypothesis. 

Secondly,  the  direct  statement  of  Sharpe's  men  that  Ewell 
has  gone  to  Tennessee. 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  385 

If  you  have  a  plan  matured,  I  have  nothing  to  say.  If 
you  have  not,  then  I  suggest  that,  with  all  possible  expedition, 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  get  ready  to  attack  Lee,  and  that 
in  the  meantime  a  raid  shall,  at  all  hazards,  break  the  railroad 
at  or  near  Lynchburg. 

26th.  (To  George  H.  Boker.)  It  is  with  heartfelt  grati- 
fication that  I  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  communication 
of  the  6th,  and  the  accompanying  medal  by  which  I  am  made 
an  honorary  member  of  the  Union  League  of  Philadelphia. 

29th.  (To  General  G.  G.  Meade.)  I  see  in  a  newspaper 
that  you  have  recently  approved  sentences  of  death  for  deser- 
tion of  Thomas  Sands,  James  Haley,  H.  H.  Williams,  Mathias 
Brown,  alias  Albert  Brown,  H.  C.  Beardsley,  and  George  F. 
Perkins.  Several  of  these  are  persons  in  behalf  of  whom 
appeals  have  been  made  to  me.  Please  send  me  a  short  state- 
ment of  each  one  of  the  cases,  stating  the  age  of  each,  so  far 
as  you  can. 

November  2nd.  (To  Postmaster-General  Blair.)  Some 
days  ago  I  understood  you  to  say  that  your  brother,  General 
Frank  Blair,  desires  to  be  guided  by  my  wishes  as  to  whether 
he  will  occupy  his  seat  in  Congress  or  remain  in  the  field. 
My  wish,  then,  is  compounded  of  what  I  believe  will  be  best 
for  the  country  and  best  for  him,  and  it  is  that  he  will  come 
here,  put  his  military  commission  in  my  hands,  take  his  seat, 
go  into  caucus  with  our  friends,  abide  by  the  nominations,  help 
elect  the  nominees,  and  thus  aid  to  organize  a  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives which  will  really  support  the  government  in  the 
war.  If  the  result  shall  be  the  election  of  himself  as  Speaker, 
let  him  serve  in  that  position;  if  not,  let  him  take  his  com- 
mission and  return  to  the  army  for  the  benefit  of  the  country. 

(To  James  H.  Hackett.)  My  note  to  you  I  certainly  did 
not  expect  to  see  in  print,  yet  I  have  not  been  much  shocked 
by  the  newspaper  comments  upon  it.  Those  comments  con- 
stitute a  fair  specimen  of  what  has  occurred  to  me  through 


286  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

life.  I  have  endured  a  great  deal  of  ridicule  without  much 
malice;  and  have  received  a  great  deal  of  kindness,  not  quite 
free  from  ridicule.     I  am  used  to  it. 

3rd.  (To  General  G.  G.  Meade.)  Samuel  Wellers,  pri- 
vate in  Company  B,  Forty-ninth  Pennsylvania  Volunteers, 
writes  that  he  is  to  be  shot  for  desertion  on  the  6th  instant. 
His  own  story  is  rather  a  bad  one,  and  yet  he  tells  it  so  frankly, 
that  I  am  somewhat  interested  in  him.  Has  he  been  a  good 
soldier  except  the  desertion?    About  how  old  is  he? 

pth.  In  a  conversation  with  General  Butler,  he  made  a  sug- 
gestion which  impressed  me  a  good  deal  at  the  time.  It  was 
that,  as  a  preliminary  step,  a  vote  be  taken  (in  Louisiana)  yea 
or  nay,  whether  there  shall  be  a  State  convention  to  repeal  the 
ordinance  of  secession  and  remodel  the  State  constitution. 

The  point  which  impressed  me  was,  not  so  much  the  ques- 
tions to  be  voted  on,  as  the  effect  of  crystallizing,  so  to  speak, 
in  taking  such  popular  vote  on  any  popular  question. 

In  fact,  I  have  always  thought  the  act  of  secession  is 
legally  nothing,  and  needs  no  repealing. 

nth.  (To  John  Milderborger.)  I  can  not  comprehend 
the  object  of  your  despatch.  I  do  not  often  decline  seeing  peo- 
ple who  call  upon  me,  and  probably  will  see  you  if  you  call. 

(To  Secretary  Stanton.)  I  personally  wish  Jacob  Freese, 
of  New  Jersey,  to  be  appointed  colonel  for  a  colored  regiment, 
and  this  regardless  of  whether  he  can  tell  the  exact  shade  of 
Julius  Caesar's  hair. 

iyth.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  I  expected  to  see  you  here 
at  Cabinet  meeting,  and  to  say  something  about  going  to 
Gettysburg.  There  will  be  a  train  to  take  and  return  us.  The 
time  for  starting  is  not  yet  fixed;  but  when  it  shall  be,  I  will 
notify  you. 

ipth.    At  Gettysburg. 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought  forth 
on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedi- 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  387 

cated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  Now 
we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether  that 
nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long 
endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We 
have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting- 
place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might 
live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 
But  in  a  larger  sense,  we  can  not  dedicate,  we  can  not  conse- 
crate, we  can  not  hallow — this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living 
and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our 
poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note,  nor 
long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what 
they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated 
here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have 
thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedi- 
cated to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us,  that  from  these 
honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for 
which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that 
this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom ;  and 
that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 

20th.     Washington. 

(To  Edward  Everett.)  Your  kind  note  of  to-day  is 
received.  In  our  respective  parts  yesterday,  you  could  not 
have  been  excused  to  make  a  short  address,  nor  I  a  long  one. 
I  am  pleased  to  know  that,  in  your  judgment,  the  little  I  did 
say  was  not  entirely  a  failure. 

Of  course,  I  knew  Mr.  Everett  would  not  fail,  and  yet, 
while  the  whole  discourse  was  eminently  satisfactory,  and  will 
be  of  great  value,  there  were  passages  in  it  which  transcended 
my  expectations. 

The  point  made  against  the  theory  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment being  only  an  agency  whose  principals  are  the  States, 


388  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

was  new  to  me,  and,  as  I  think,  is  one  of  the  best  arguments 
for  the  national  supremacy.  The  tribute  to  our  noble  women 
for  their  angel  ministering  to  the  suffering  soldiers  surpasses 
in  its  way,  as  do  the  subjects  of  it,  whatever  has  gone  before. 

Our  sick  boy,  for  whom  you  kindly  inquire,  we  hope  is 
past  the  worst. 

(To  General  G.  G.  Meade.)  If  there  is  a  man  by  the 
name  of  King  under  sentence  to  be  shot,  please  suspend  execu- 
tion till  further  order,  and  send  record. 

An  intelligent  woman  in  deep  distress,  called  this  morning, 
saying  her  husband,  a  lieutenant  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
was  to  be  shot  next  Monday  for  desertion,  and  putting  a  letter 
in  my  hand,  upon  which  I  relied  for  particulars,  she  left  with- 
out mentioning  a  name  or  other  particular  by  which  to  identify 
the  case.  On  opening  the  letter  I  found  it  equally  vague,  hav- 
ing nothing  to  identify  by,  except  her  own  signature,  which 
seems  to  be  "Mrs.  Anna  S.  King."  I  could  not  again  find  her. 
If  you  have  a  case  which  you  shall  think  is  probably  the  one 
intended,  please  apply  my  despatch  of  this  morning  to  it. 

I  am  very  glad  the  elections  this  autumn  have  gone  favor- 
ably, and  that  I  have  not,  by  native  depravity  or  under  evil 
influences,  done  anything  bad  enough  to  prevent  the  good 
result.  I  hope  to  "stand  firm"  enough  to  not  go  backward,  and 
yet  not  go  forward  fast  enough  to  wreck  the  country's  cause. 

23rd.  (To  E.  P.  Evans.)  Yours  to  Governor  Chase  in 
behalf  of  John  A.  Welch  is  before  me.  Can  there  be  a  worse 
case  than  to  desert  and  with  letters  persuading  others  to  desert  ? 
I  can  not  interpose  without  a  better  showing  than  you  make. 
When  did  he  desert?     When  did  he  write  this  letter? 

2^th-2^th.    Chattanooga. 

December  ?th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  All  doing  well.  Tad 
confidently  expects  you  to-night.    When  will  you  come?    Tad 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  389 

has  received  his  book.  The  carriage  shall  be  ready  at  6p.  m. 
to-morrow. 

(Announcement  of  Union  success  in  East  Tennessee.) 
Reliable  information  being  received  that  the  insurgent 
force  is  retreating  from  East  Tennessee,  under  circumstances 
rendering  it  probable  that  the  Union  forces  can  not  hereafter 
be  dislodged  from  that  important  position,  and  esteeming  this 
to  be  of  high  national  consequence,  I  recommend  that  all  loyal 
people  do,  on  receipt  of  this  information,  assemble  at  their 
places  of  worship,  and  render  special  homage  and  gratitude  to 
Almighty  God  for  this  great  advancement  of  the  national 
cause. 

8th.  (A  Proclamation.)  Whereas,  it  is  now  desired  by 
some  persons  heretofore  engaged  in  said  rebellion  to  resume 
their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and  to  reinaugurate  loyal 
State  governments  within  and  for  their  respective  States : 
Therefore 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons  who  have, 
directly  or  by  implication,  participated  in  the  existing  rebellion, 
except  as  hereinafter  excepted,  that  a  full  pardon  is  hereby 
granted  to  them  and  each  of  them,  with  restoration  of  all 
rights  of  property,  except  as  to  slaves,  and  in  property  cases 
where  rights  of  third  parties  shall  have  intervened,  and  upon 
the  condition  that  every  such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe 
an  oath,  and  thenceforward  keep  and  maintain  said  oath  in- 
violate; and  which  oath  shall  be  registered  for  permanent 
preservation,  and  shall  be  of  the  tenor  and  effect  following, 
to-wit  : 

"I,    ,    do    solemnly    swear,    in    presence    of 

Almighty  God,  that  I  will  henceforth  faithfully  support,  pro- 
tect, and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  union  of  the  States  thereunder;  and  that  I  will,  in  like 
manner,  abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  acts  of  Congress 


390  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

passed  during  the  existing  rebellion  with  reference  to  slaves,  so 
long  and  so  far  as  not  repealed,  modified,  or  held  void  by 
Congress,  or  by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court;  and  that  I 
will,  in  like  manner,  abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  procla- 
mations of  the  President  made  during  the  existing  rebellion 
having  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  modified 
or  declared  void  by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  So  help 
me  God." 

The  persons  exempted  from  the  benefits  of  the  foregoing 
provisions  are  all  who  are,  or  shall  have  been,  civil  or  diplo- 
matic officers  or  agents  of  the  so-called  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment; all  who  have  left  judicial  stations  under  the  United 
States  to  aid  the  rebellion;  all  who  are  or  shall  have  been 
military  or  naval  officers  of  said  so-called  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment above  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  army  or  of  lieutenant 
in  the  navy;  all  who  left  seats  in  the  United  States  Congress 
to  aid  the  rebellion ;  all  who  resigned  commissions  in  the  army 
or  navy  of  the  United  States  and  afterward  aided  the  rebellion; 
and  all  who  have  engaged  in  any  way  in  treating  colored  per- 
sons, or  white  persons  in  charge  of  such,  otherwise  than  law- 
fully as  prisoners  of  war,  and  which  persons  may  have  been 
found  in  the  United  States  service  as  soldiers,  seamen,  or  in 
any  other  capacity. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  that 
whenever,  in  any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Florida,  South  Car- 
olina, and  North  Carolina,  a  number  of  persons,  not  less  than 
one-tenth  in  number  of  the  votes  cast  in  such  State  at  the 
presidential  election  of  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty  each  having  taken  the  oath  aforesaid  and 
not  having  since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified  voter  by  the 
election  law  of  the  State  existing  immediately  before  the  so- 
called  act  of  secession,  and  excluding  all  others,  shall  re- 
establish a  State  government  which  shall  be  republican,  and 


age  54]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  391 

in  no  wise  contravening  said  oath,  such  shall  be  recognized 
as  the  true  government  of  the  State,  and  the  State  shall  receive 
thereunder  the  benefits  of  the  constitutional  provision  which 
declares  that:  "the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every 
State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and 
shall  protect  each  of  them  against  invasion;  and,  on  applica- 
tion of  the  Legislature,  or  the  executive  (when  the  Legislature 
can  not  be  convened),  against  domestic  violence.,, 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  that 
any  provision  which  may  be  adopted  by  such  State  government 
in  relation  to  the  freed  people  of  such  State,  which  shall  recog- 
nize and  declare  their  permanent  freedom,  provide  for  their 
education,  and  which  may  yet  be  consistent  as  a  temporary 
arrangement  with  their  present  condition  as  a  laboring,  land- 
less, and  homeless  class,  will  not  be  objected  to  by  the  national 
Executive. 

When  Congress  assembled  a  year  ago  the  war  had  already 
lasted  nearly  twenty  months,  and  there  had  been  many  con- 
flicts on  both  land  and  sea  with  varying  results.  The  re- 
bellion had  been  pressed  back  into  reduced  limits ;  yet  the  tone 
of  public  feeling  and  opinion,  at  home  and  abroad,  was  not 
satisfactory.  With  other  signs,  the  popular  elections,  then 
just  past,  indicated  uneasiness  among  ourselves  while,  amid 
much  that  was  cold  and  menacing,  the  kindest  words  coming 
from  Europe  were  uttered  in  accents  of  pity  that  we  wrere  too 
blind  to  surrender  a  hopeless  cause.  Our  commerce  was  suf- 
fering greatly  by  a  few  armed  vessels  built  upon,  and  furnished 
from,  foreign  shores,  and  we  were  threatened  with  such  addi- 
tions from  the  same  quarter  as  would  sweep  our  trade  from 
the  sea  and  raise  our  blockade.  We  had  failed  to  elicit  from 
European  governments  anything  hopeful  upon  this  subject. 
The  preliminary  emancipation  proclamation,  issued  in  Septem- 
ber, was  running  its  assigned  period  to  the  beginning  of  the 
new  year.    A  month  later  the  final  proclamation  came,  includ- 


392  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1863 

ing  the  announcement  that  colored  men  of  suitable  condition 
would  be  received  into  the  war  service.  The  policy  of  eman- 
cipation, and  of  employing  black  soldiers  gave  to  the  future  a 
new  aspect,  about  which  hope,  fear,  and  doubt  contended  in 
uncertain  conflict.  According  to  our  political  system,  as  a 
matter  of  civil  administration,  the  Government  had  no  lawful 
power  to  effect  emancipation  in  any  State,  and  for  a  long  time 
it  had  been  hoped  that  the  rebellion  could  be  suppressed  with- 
out resorting  to  it  as  a  military  measure.  It  was  all  the  while 
deemed  possible  that  the  necessity  for  it  might  come,  and  that 
if  it  should,  the  crisis  of  the  contest  would  then  be  presented. 
It  came,  and,  as  was  anticipated,  it  was  followed  by  dark  and 
doubtful  days.  Eleven  months  having  now  passed,  we  are  per- 
mitted to  take  another  review.  The  rebel  borders  are  pressed 
still  further  back,  and,  by  the  complete  opening  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, the  country  dominated  by  the  rebellion  is  divided  into 
distinct  parts,  with  no  practical  communication  between  them. 
Tennessee  and  Arkansas  have  been  substantially  cleared  of 
insurgent  control,  and  influential  citizens  in  each,  owners  of 
slaves  and  advocates  of  slavery  at  the  beginning  of  the  re- 
bellion, now  declare  openly  for  emancipation  in  their  respec- 
tive States.  Of  those  States  not  included  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  Maryland  and  Missouri,  neither  of  which  three 
years  ago  would  tolerate  any  restraint  upon  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  new  territories,  only  dispute  now  as  to  the  best 
mode  of  removing  it  within  their  own  limits. 

Of  those  who  were  slaves  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion, 
full  100,000  are  now  in  the  U.  S.  military  service,  about  one- 
half  of  which  number  actually  bear  arms  in  the  ranks,  thus 
giving  the  double  advantage  of  taking  so  much  labor  from 
the  insurgent  cause,  and  supplying  the  places  which  otherwise 
must  be  filled  with  so  many  white  men.  So  far  as  attested,  it 
is  difficult  to  say  they  are  not  as  good  soldiers  as  any.  No 
servile  insurrection,  or  tendency  to  violence  or  cruelty,  has 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  393 

marked  the  measures  of  emancipation  and  arming  the 
blacks. 

These  measures  have  been  much  discussed  in  foreign 
countries,  and  contemporary  with  such  discussion  the  tone  of 
public  sentiment  there  is  much  improved.  At  home  the  same 
measures  have  been  fully  discussed,  supported,  criticized,  and 
denounced  and  the  annual  elections  following  are  highly 
encouraging  to  those  whose  official  duty  it  is  to  bear  the 
country  through  this  great  trial.  Thus  we  have  the  new 
reckoning.  The  crises  which  threatened  to  divide  the  friends 
of  the  Union  is  past. 

The  proposed  acquiescence  Qf  the  national  Executive  in  any 
reasonable  temporary  State  arrangement  for  the  freed  people 
is  made  with  the  view  of  possibly  modifying  the  confusion  and 
destitution  which  must  at  best  attend  all  classes  by  a  total 
revolution  of  labor  throughout  whole  States.  It  is  hoped  that 
the  already  deeply  afflicted  people  in  those  States  may  be  some- 
what more  ready  to  give  up  the  cause  of  their  affliction,  if,  to 
this  extent,  this  vital  matter  be  left  to  themselves;  while  no 
power  of  the  national  executive  to  prevent  an  abuse  is  abridged 
by  the  proposition. 

The  movements,  by  State  action,  for  emancipation  in 
several  of  the  States  not  included  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  are  matters  of  profound  gratulation.  And  while 
I  do  not  repeat  in  detail  what  I  have  heretofore  so  earnestly 
urged  upon  this  subject,  my  general  views  and  feelings  remain 
unchanged;  and  I  trust  that  Congress  will  omit  no  fair 
opportunity  of  aiding  these  important  steps  to  a  great 
consummation. 

In  the  midst  of  other  cares,  however  important,  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  war  power  is  still  our  main 
reliance.  To  that  power  alone  can  we  look  yet  for  a  time,  to 
give  confidence  to  the  people  in  the  contested  regions  that  the 
insurgent  power  will  not  again  overrun  them.     Until  that 


394  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1863 

confidence  shall  be  established,  little  can  be  done  anywhere  for 
what  is  called  reconstruction.  Hence  our  chief  est  care  must 
still  be  directed  to  the  Army  and  Navy,  who  have  thus  far  borne 
their  harder  part  so  nobly  and  well.  And  it  may  be  esteemed 
fortunate  that  in  giving  the  greatest  efficiency  to  these 
indispensable  arms,  we  do  also  honorably  recognize  the  gallant 
men,  from  commander  to  sentinel,  who  compose  them,  and  to 
whom,  more  than  to  others,  the  world  must  stand  indebted  for 
the  home  of  freedom  disenthralled,  enlarged,  and  perpetuated. 

(To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Understanding  that  your 
lodgment  at  Chattanooga  and  Knoxville  is  now  secure,  I  wish 
to  tender  you,  and  all  under  your  command  my  more  than 
thanks,  my  profoundest  gratitude  for  the  skill,  courage  and 
perseverance  with  which  you  and  they,  over  so  great 
difficulties,  have  effected  that  important  object.  God  bless 
you  all. 

(To  Mother  Mary  Gonyeag.)  The  President  has  no 
authority  as  to  whether  you  may  raffle  for  the  benevolent 
object  you  mention.  If  there  is  no  objection  in  the  Iowa  laws, 
there  is  none  here. 

17th.  (To  General  S.  A.  Hurlbut.)  I  understand  you  have 
under  sentence  of  death,  a  tall  old  man,  by  the  name  of  Henry 
F.  Luckett.  I  personally  know  him,  and  did  not  think  him  a 
bad  man.  Please  do  not  let  him  be  executed  unless  upon  further 
order  from  me,  and  in  the  meantime  send  me  a  transcript  of 
the  record. 

18 th.  (To  Secretary  Stanton.)  I  believe  General  Scho field 
must  be  relieved  from  command  of  the  department  of  Missouri ; 
otherwise  a  question  of  veracity,  in  relation  to  his  declarations 
as  to  his  interfering,  or  not,  with  the  Missouri  legislature,  will 
be  made  with  him,  which  will  create  an  additional  amount  of 
trouble,  not  to  be  overcome  by  even  a  correct  decision  of  the 
question.  The  question  itself  must  be  avoided.  Now  for  the 
mode.    Senator  Henderson,  his  friend,  thinks  he  can  be  induced 


age  54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  395 

to  ask  to  be  relieved;  if  he  shall  understand  he  will  be  gener- 
ously treated ;  and,  on  this  latter  point,  Grant  Brown  will  help 
his  nomination  as  a  major-general  through  the  Senate.  In  no 
other  way  can  he  be  confirmed;  and  upon  his  rejection  alone 
it  would  be  difficult  for  me  to  sustain  him  as  commander  of 
the  department.  Besides,  his  being  relieved  from  command  of 
the  department,  and  at  the  same  time  confirmed  as  a  major- 
general  will  be  the  means  of  Henderson  and  Brown  leading 
off  together  as  friends,  and  will  go  far  to  heal  the  Missouri 
difficulty.  Another  point.  I  find  it  is  scarcely  less  than 
indispensable  for  me  to  do  something  for  General  Rosecrans; 
and  I  find  Henderson  and  Brown  will  agree  to  him  for  the 
commander  of  their  department. 

25th.  (To  Bayard  Taylor.)  I  think  a  good  lecture  or  two 
on  Serfs,  Serfdom,  and  Emancipation  in  Russia  would  be  both 
interesting  and  valuable.    Could  not  you  get  up  such  a  thing? 


1864 

January  fth.  The  case  of  Andrews  (a  deserter)  is  really 
a  very  bad  one,  as  appears  by  the  record  already  before  me. 
Yet  before  receiving  this  I  had  ordered  his  punishment 
commuted  to  imprisonment  for  during  the  war  at  hard  labor, 
and  had  so  telegraphed.  I  did  this,  not  on  any  merit  in  the  case, 
but  because  I  am  trying  to  evade  the  butchering  business  lately. 

1 6th.  (To  Crosby  and  Nichols.)  The  number  of  this 
month  and  year  of  the  North  American  Review  was  duly 
received,  and  for  which  please  accept  my  thanks.  Of  course, 
I  am  not  the  most  impartial  judge;  yet,  with  due  allowance 
for  this,  I  venture  to  hope  that  the  article  entitled  "The 
President's  Policy"  will  be  of  value  to  the  country.  I  fear  I 
am  not  quite  worthy  of  all  which  is  therein  kindly  said  of  me 
personally. 

The  sentence  of  twelve  lines,  commencing  at  the  top  of 
pages  252,  I  could  wish  to  be  not  exactly  as  it  is.  In  what  is 
there  expressed,  the  writer  has  not  correctly  understood  me. 
I  have  never  had  a  theory  that  secession  could  absolve  States  or 
people  from  their  obligations.  Precisely  the  contrary  is 
asserted  in  the  inaugural  address;  and  it  was  because  of  my 
belief  in  the  continuation  of  these  obligations  that  I  was 
puzzled,  for  a  time,  as  to  denying  the  legal  rights  of  those 
citizens  who  remained  individually  innocent  of  treason  or 
rebellion.  But  I  mean  no  more  now  than  to  merely  call 
attention  to  this  point. 

20th.  (To  General  J.  J.  Reynolds.)  It  would  appear  by 
the  accompanying  papers  that  Mrs.   Mary  E.   Morton  is  the 

396 


ace54]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  397 

owner,  independently  of  her  husband,  of  a  certain  building, 
premises,  and  furniture  which  she,  with  her  children,  has  been 
occupying  and  using  peaceably  during  the  war  until  recently, 
when  the  Provost-Marshal  has,  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States  Government,  seized  the  whole  of  said  property,  and 
ejected  her  from  it.  It  also  appears  by  her  statement  to  me 
that  her  husband  went  off  in  the  rebellion  at  the  beginning, 
wherein  he  still  remains. 

It  would  seem  that  this  seizure  has  not  been  made  for  any 
military  object,  as  for  a  place  of  storage,  a  hospital,  or  the  like, 
because  this  would  not  have  required  the  seizure  of  the 
furniture,  and  especially  not  the  return  of  furniture  previously 
taken  away. 

The  seizure  must  have  been  on  some  claim  of  confiscation, 
a  matter  of  which  the  courts,  and  not  the  provost-marshals 
or  other  military  officers,  are  to  judge.  In  this  very  case 
would  probably  be  the  questions,  "Is  either  the  husband  or  wife 
a  traitor  ?"  "Does  the  property  belong  to  the  husband  or  to 
the  wife?"  "Is  the  property  of  the  wife  confiscable  for  the 
treason  of  the  husband?"  and  other  similar  questions,  all  which 
it  is  ridiculous  for  a  provost-marshal  to  assume  to  decide. 

The  true  rule  for  the  military  is  to  seize  such  property  as 
is  needed  for  military  uses  and  reasons,  and  let  the  rest  alone. 
Cotton  and  other  staple  articles  of  commerce  are  seizable  for 
military  reasons.  Dwelling  houses  and  furniture  seldom  are. 
If  Mrs.  Morton  is  playing  traitor  to  the  extent  of  practical 
injury,  seize  her,  but  leave  her  house  to  the  courts.  Please 
revise  and  adjust  this  case  upon  these  principles. 

23rd.  (To  Alpheus  Lewis.)  You  have  inquired  how  the 
government  would  regard  and  treat  cases  wherein  the  owners 
of  plantations,  in  Arkansas,  for  instance,  might  fully  recognize 
the  freedom  of  those  formerly  slaves,  and  by  fair  contracts  of 
hire  with  them,  recommence  the  cultivation  of  their  plantations. 
I  answer,  I  should  regard  such  cases  with  great  favor,  and 


398  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

should  as  a  principle  treat  them  precisely  as  I  would  treat  the 
same  number  of  free  white  people  in  the  same  relation  and 
condition.  Whether  white  or  black,  reasonable  effort  should 
be  made  to  give  government  protection. 

February  1st.  (To  Secretary  Stanton.)  You  are 
directed  to  have  a  transport  (either  a  steam  or  sailing  vessel, 
as  may  be  deemed  proper  by  the  Quartermaster-General)  sent 
to  the  colored  colony  established  by  the  United  States  at  the 
island  of  Vache,  on  the  coast  of  San  Domingo,  to  bring  back 
to  this  country  such  of  the  colonists  there  as  desire  to  return. 
You  will  have  the  transport  furnished  with  suitable  supplies 
for  that  purpose,  and  detail  an  officer  of  the  Quartermaster's 
Department  who,  under  special  instructions  to  be  given,  shall 
have  charge  of  the  business.  The  colonists  will  be  brought  to 
Washington,  unless  otherwise  hereafter  directed,  and  be 
employed  and  provided  for  at  the  camps  for  colored  persons 
around  that  city.  Those  only  will  be  brought  from  the  island 
who  desire  to  return,  and  their  effects  will  be  brought  with 
them. 

Ordered,  That  a  draft  for  500,000  men,  to  serve  for  three 
years  or  during  the  war,  be  made  on  the  10th  day  of  March 
next,  for  the  military  service  of  the  United  States,  crediting 
and  deducting  therefrom  so  many  as  may  have  been  enlisted  or 
drafted  into  the  service  prior  to  the  1st  day  of  March,  and  not 
before  credited. 

5th.  On  principle  I  dislike  an  oath  which  requires  a  man 
to  swear  he  has  not  done  wrong.  It  rejects  the  Christian 
principle  of  forgiveness  on  terms  of  repentance.  I  think  it  is 
enough  if  the  man  does  no  wrong  hereafter. 

17th.  (To  W.  M.  Fishback.)  Wlien  I  fixed  a  plan  for  an 
election  in  Arkansas  I  did  it  in  ignorance  that  your  convention 
was  doing  the  same  work.  Since  I  learned  the  latter  fact  I 
have  been  constantly  trying  to  yield  my  plan  to  theirs.  I  have 
sent  two  letters  to  General  Steele,  and  three  or  four  despatches 


age  551  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  399 

to  you  and  others,  saying  that  he,  (General  Steele)  must  be 
master,  but  that  it  will  probably  be  best  for  him  to  merely  help 
the  convention  on  its  own  plan.  Some  single  mind  must  be 
master,  else  there  will  be  no  agreement  in  anything;  and 
General  Steele,  commanding  the  military  and  being  on  the 
ground,  is  the  best  man  to  be  that  master.  Even  now  citizens 
are  telegraphing  me  to  postpone  the  election  to  a  later  day  than 
either  that  fixed  by  the  convention  or  by  me.  This  discord 
must  be  silenced. 

1 8th.  (To  Governor  Andrew.)  Yours  of  the  12th  was 
received  yesterday.  If  I  were  to  judge  from  the  letter,  without 
any  external  knowledge,  I  should  suppose  that  all  the  colored 
people  south  of  Washington  were  struggling  to  get  to  Massa- 
chusetts ;  that  Massachusetts  was  anxious  to  receive  and  retain 
the  whole  of  them  as  permanent  citizens,  and  that  the  United 
States  Government  here  was  interposing  and  preventing  this. 
But  I  suppose  these  are  neither  really  the  facts  nor  meant  to  be 
asserted  as  true  by  you.  Coming  down  to  what  I  suppose  to 
be  the  real  facts,  you  are  engaged  in  trying  to  raise  colored 
troops  for  the  United  States,  and  wish  to  take  recruits  from 
Virginia  through  Washington  to  Massachusetts  for  that 
object,  and  the  loyal  governor  of  Virginia,  also  trying  to  raise 
troops  for  us,  objects  to  your  taking  his  material  away,  while 
we,  having  to  care  for  all  and  being  responsible  alike  to  all, 
have  to  do  as  much  for  him  as  we  would  have  to  do  for  you  if 
he  was  by  our  authority  taking  men  from  Massachusetts  to 
fill  up  Virginia  regiments.  No  more  than  this  has  been  intended 
by  me,  nor,  as  I  think,  by  the  Secretary  of  War.  There  may 
have  been  some  abuses  of  this,  as  a  rule,  which,  if  known, 
should  be  prevented  in  future.  If,  however,  it  be  really  true 
that  Massachusetts  wishes  to  afford  a  permanent  home  within 
her  borders  for  all  or  even  a  large  number  of  colored  persons 
who  will  come  to  her,  I  shall  be  only  too  glad  to  know  it.  It 
would  give  relief  in  a  very  difficult  point,  and  I  would  not  for 


400  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

a  moment  hinder  from  going  any  person  who  is  free  by  the 
terms  of  the  proclamation,  or  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress. 

25th.  (To  General  F.  Steele.)  General  Sickles  is  not 
going  to  Arkansas.  He  probably  will  make  a  tour  down  the 
Mississippi  and  home  by  the  gulf  and  ocean,  but  he  will  not 
meddle  in  your  affairs.  At  one  time  I  did  intend  to  have  him 
call  on  you  and  explain  more  fully  than  I  could  do  by  letter  or 
telegraph,  so  as  to  avoid  a  difficulty  coming  of  my  having 
made  a  plan  here,  while  the  convention  made  one  there,  for 
reorganizing  Arkansas ;  but  even  his  doing  that  has  been  given 
up  for  more  than  two  weeks.  Please  show  this  to  Governor 
Murphy  to  save  me  telegraphing  him. 

2/th.  No  person  who  has  taken  the  oath  of  amnesty  of 
eighth  December,  1863,  and  obtained  a  pardon  thereby,  and 
who  intends  to  observe  the  same  in  good  faith,  should  have  any 
objection  to  taking  that  prescribed  by  Governor  Johnson  (of 
Tennessee)  as  a  test  of  loyalty.  I  have  seen  and  examined 
Governor  Johnson's  proclamation,  and  am  entirely  satisfied 
with  his  plan,  which  is  to  restore  the  State  government  and 
place  it  under  the  control  of  citizens  truly  loyal  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States. 

A  paper  known  as  the  Pomeroy  Circular  is  distributed 
confidentially  for  the  purpose  of  making  Chase  the  Republican 
nominee  for  President.  At  last  it  is  made  public  and  Chase 
writes  to  the  President  disowning  it. 

2pth.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  My  knowledge  of  Mr. 
Pomeroy's  letter  having  been  made  public  came  to  me  only  the 
day  you  wrote;  but  I  had,  in  spite  of  myself,  known  of  its 
existence  several  days  before.  I  have  not  yet  read  it,  and  I 
think  I  shall  not.  I  was  not  shocked  or  surprised  by  the 
appearance  of  the  letter,  because  I  had  had  knowledge  of  Mr. 
Pomeroy's  committee,  and  of  secret  issues  which,  I  supposed, 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  401 

came  from  it,  and  of  secret  agents  who,  I  supposed,  were  sent 
out  by  it,  for  several  weeks.  I  have  known  just  as  little  of 
these  things  as  my  friends  have  allowed  me  to  know.  They 
bring  the  documents  to  me,  but  I  do  not  read  them ;  they  tell 
me  what  they  think  fit  to  tell  me,  but  I  do  not  inquire  for  more. 

I  fully  concur  with  you  that  neither  of  us  can  be  justly  held 
responsible  for  what  our  respective  friends  may  do  without  our 
instigation  or  countenance;  and  I  assure  you,  as  you  have 
assured  me,  that  no  assault  has  been  made  upon  you  by  my 
instigation  or  with  my  countenance. 

Whether  you  shall  remain  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury 
Department  is  a  question  which  I  will  not  allow  myself  to 
consider  from  any  stand-point  other  than  my  judgment  of  the 
public  service,  and,  in  that  view,  I  do  not  perceive  occasion  for 
a  change. 

(Commenting  on  Chase.)  My  half-brother  was  once 
ploughing  corn  on  a  Kentucky  farm.  I  was  driving  the  horse 
and  he  holding  the  plough.  The  horse  was  lazy,  but  on  one 
occasion  rushed  across  the  field  so  fast  that  I,  even  with  my 
long  legs,  could  hardly  keep  pace  with  him.  On  reaching  the 
end  of  the  furrow,  I  found  an  enormous  chin-fly  fastened 
upon  him,  and  knocked  him  off.  My  brother  asked  me  what 
I  did  that  for.  I  told  him  I  didn't  want  the  old  horse  bitten  in 
that  way.  "Why,"  said  he,  "that's  what  makes  him  go."  If  Mr. 
Chase  has  a  Presidential  chin-fly  biting  him,  I'm  not  going 
to  knock  him  off,  if  it  will  only  make  his  department  go.* 

March  1st.  (To  Secretary  Stanton.)  A  poor  widow,  by 
the  name  of  Baird,  has  a  son  in  the  army,  that  for  some  offense 
has  been  sentenced  to  serve  a  long  time  without  pay,  or  at  most 
with  very  little  pay.  I  do  not  like  this  punishment  of  with- 
holding pay — it  falls  so  very  hard  upon  poor  families.  After 
he  had  been  serving  in  this  way  for  several  months,  at  the  tear- 
ful appeal  of  the  poor  mother,  I  made  a  direction  that  he  be 

*Date  approximate. 


402  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

allowed  to  enlist  for  a  new  term,  on  the  same  conditions  as 
others.  She  now  comes  and  says  she  can  not  get  it  acted  upon. 
Please  do  it. 

4th.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  In  consequence  of  a  call  Mr. 
Villard  makes  on  me,  having  a  note  from  you  to  him,  I  am 
induced  to  say  I  have  no  wish  for  the  publication  of  the 
correspondence  between  yourself  and  me  in  relation  to  the 
Pomeroy  circular — in  fact,  rather  prefer  to  avoid  any 
unnecessary  exhibition;  yet  you  are  at  liberty,  without  in  the 
least  offending  me,  to  allow  the  publication  if  you  choose. 

yth.  I  am  very  anxious  for  emancipation  to  be  effected 
in  Maryland  in  some  substantial  form.  I  think  it  probable  that 
my  expressions  of  a  preference  for  gradual  over  immediate 
emancipation  are  misunderstood.  I  had  thought  the  gradual 
would  produce  less  confusion  and  destitution;  and  therefore 
would  be  more  satisfactory;  but  if  those  who  are  better 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  and  are  more  deeply  interested  in 
it,  prefer  the  immediate,  most  certainly  I  have  no  objection  to 
their  judgment  prevailing.  My  wish  is  that  all  who  are  for 
emancipation  in  any  form,  shall  cooperate,  all  treating  all 
respectfully,  and  all  adopting  and  acting  upon  the  major 
opinion  when  fairly  ascertained.  What  I  have  dreaded  is  the 
danger  that  by  jealousies,  rivalries,  and  consequent  ill-blood — 
driving  one  another  out  of  meetings  and  conventions — 
perchance  from  the  polls — the  friends  of  emancipation  them- 
selves may  divide,  and  lose  the  measure  altogether. 

pth.  (To  General  Grant.)  The  expression  of  the  nation's 
approbation  of  what  you  have  already  done,  and  its  reliance 
on  you  for  what  remains  to  do  in  the  existing  great  struggle, 
is  now  presented  with  this  commission,  constituting  you 
Lieutenant-General  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States. 

With  this  high  honor,  devolves  an  additional  responsibility. 
As  the  country  herein  trusts  you,  so,  under  God,  it  will  sustain 
you.  I  scarcely  need  add,  that  with  what  I  here  speak  for  the 
country,  goes  my  own  hearty  personal  concurrence. 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  403 

13th.  (To  Governor  Michael  Hahn.)  I  congratulate  you 
on  having  fixed  your  name  in  history  as  the  first  Free  State 
Governor  of  Louisiana.  Now  you  are  about  to  have  a 
convention,  which,  among  other  things,  will  probably  define 
the  elective  franchise.  I  barely  suggest,  for  your  private 
consideration,  whether  some  of  the  colored  people  may  not  be 
let  in,  as,  for  instance,  the  very  intelligent,  and  especially  those 
who  have  fought  gallantly  in  our  ranks. 

(To  General  C.  Schurz.)  Yours  of  February  29  reached 
me  only  four  days  ago ;  but  the  delay  was  of  little  consequence, 
because  I  found,  on  feeling  around,  I  could  not  invite  you  here 
without  a  difficulty  which  at  least  would  be  unpleasant,  and 
perhaps  would  be  detrimental  to  the  public  service.  Allow  me  to 
suggest  that  if  you  wish  to  remain  in  the  military  service,  it  is 
very  dangerous  for  you  to  get  temporarily  out  of  it;  because, 
with  a  major-general  once  out,  it  is  next  to  impossible  for  even 
the  President  to  get  him  in  again.  With  my  appreciation  of 
your  ability  and  correct  principle,  of  course  I  would  be  very 
glad  to  have  your  service  for  the  country  in  the  approaching 
political  canvass;  but  I  fear  we  can  not  properly  have  it 
without  separating  you  from  the  military. 

18th.  In  this  extraordinary  war,  extraordinary  develop- 
ments have  manifested  themselves,  such  as  have  not  been  seen 
in  former  wars;  and  amongst  these  manifestations  nothing 
has  been  more  remarkable  than  these  fairs  for  the  relief  of 
suffering  soldiers  and  their  families.  And  the  chief  agents  in 
these  fairs  are  the  women  of  America.  I  am  not  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  language  of  eulogy;  I  have  never  studied  the 
art  of  paying  compliments  to  women;  but  I  must  say,  that  if 
all  that  has  been  said  by  orators  and  poets  since  the  creation  of 
the  world  in  praise  of  women  were  applied  to  the  women  of 
America,  it  would  not  do  them  justice  for  their  conduct  during 
this  war.  I  will  close  by  saying,  God  bless  the  women  of 
America. 


404  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

2 1st.  (To  a  Committee  from  the  Working  Men's 
Association  of  New  York.)  The  honorary  membership  in 
your  association,  as  generously  tendered,  is  gratefully  accepted. 

You  comprehend,  as  your  address  shows,  that  the  existing 
rebellion  means  more,  and  tends  to  more,  than  the  perpetuation 
of  African  slavery — that  it  is,  in  fact,  a  war  upon  the  rights 
of  all  working  people. 

None  are  so  deeply  interested  to  resist  the  present  rebellion 
as  the  working  people.  Let  them  beware  of  prejudices  working 
division  and  hostility  among  themselves.  The  most  notable 
feature  of  a  disturbance  in  your  city  last  summer  was  the 
hanging  of  some  working  people  by  other  working  people. 
The  strongest  bond  of  human  sympathy,  outside  the  family 
relation,  should  be  one  uniting  all  working  people,  of  all  nations, 
and  tongues,  and  kindreds.  Nor  should  this  lead  to  a  war  upon 
property,  or  the  owners  of  property.  Property  is  the  fruit  of 
labor ;  property  is  desirable ;  is  a  positive  good  in  the  world. 
That  some  should  be  rich  shows  that  others  may  become  rich, 
and  hence  is  just  encouragement  to  industry  and  enterprise. 
Let  not  him  who  is  houseless  pull  down  the  house  of  another, 
but  let  him  work  diligently  and  build  one  for  himself,  thus  by 
example  assuming  that  his  own  shall  be  safe  from  violence 
when  built. 

23rd.  (To  General  C.  Schurz.)  I  perceive  no  objection 
to  your  making  a  political  speech  when  you  are  where  one  is 
to  be  made;  but  quite  surely  speaking  in  the  North  and 
f ighting;  in  the  South  at  the  same  time  are  not  possible ;  nor 
could  I  be  justified  to  detail  any  officer  to  the  political 
campaign  during  its  continuance  and  then  return  him  to  the 
army. 

29th.  (To  Meade.)  Your  letter  to  Colonel  Townsend, 
inclosing  a  slip  from  the  Herald,  and  asking  a  court  of  inquiry, 
has  been  laid  before  me  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  with  the 
request  that  I  would  consider  it.     It  is  quite  natural  that  you 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  405 

should  feel  some  sensibility  on  the  subject;  yet  I  am  not 
impressed,  nor  do  I  think  the  country  is  impressed,  with  the 
belief  that  your  honor  demands,  or  the  public  interest  demands, 
such  an  inquiry.  The  country  knows  that  at  all  events  you 
have  done  good  service;  and  I  believe  it  agrees  with  me  that 
it  is  much  better  for  you  to  be  engaged  in  trying  to  do  more 
than  to  be  diverted,  as  you  necessarily  would  be,  by  a  court  of 
inquiry. 

(To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Captain  Kinney,  of  whom  I 
spoke  to  you  as  desiring  to  go  on  your  staff,  is  now  in  your 
camp,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Senator  Dixon.  Mrs.  Grant  and 
I  and  some  others,  agreed  last  night  that  I  should,  by  this 
despatch,  kindly  call  your  attention  to  Captain  Kinney. 

April  4th.  I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not 
wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  I  can  not  remember  when  I  did  not 
so  think  and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never  understood  that  the 
presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted  right  to  act 
officially  upon  this  judgment  and  feeling.  It  was  in  the  oath 
I  took  that  I  would,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could  not 
take  the  office  without  taking  the  oath.  Nor  was  it  my  view 
that  I  might  take  an  oath  to  get  power,  and  break  the  oath  in 
using  the  power.  I  understood,  too,  that  in  ordinary  civil 
administration  this  oath  even  forbade  me  to  practically  indulge 
my  primary  abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  question  of 
slavery.  I  had  publicly  declared  this  many  times,  and  in 
many  ways.  And  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no 
official  act  in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment  and 
feeling  on  slavery.  I  did  understand,  however,  that  my  oath 
to  preserve  the  Constitution  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  imposed 
upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving,  by  every  indispensable  means, 
that  government — that  nation,  of  which  that  Constitution  was 
the  organic  law.  Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  nation  and  yet 
preserve  the  Constitution?     By  general  law,   life  and  limb 


406  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  ti864 

must  be  protected,  yet  often  a  limb  must  be  amputated  to  save 
a  life;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given  to  save  a  limb.  I  felt 
that  measures  otherwise  unconstitutional  might  become  lawful 
by  becoming  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  nation. 
Right  or  wrong,  I  assume  this  ground,  and  now  avow  it. 

I  claim  not  to  have  controlled  events,  but  confess  plainly 
that  events  have  controlled  me. 

$th.  (To  Mrs.  Horace  Mann.)  The  petition  of  persons 
under  eighteen,  praying  that  I  would  free  all  slave  children, 
and  the  heading  of  which  petition  it  appears  you  wrote,  was 
handed  me  a  few  days  since  by  Senator  Sumner.  Please  tell 
these  little  people  I  am  very  glad  their  young  hearts  are  so 
full  of  just  and  generous  sympathy,  and  that,  while  I  have  not 
the  power  to  grant  all  they  ask,  I  trust  they  will  remember  that 
God  has,  and  that,  as  it  seems,  He  wills  to  do  it. 

(To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.)  I  nominate  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  to  be  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  vice  Robert  B.  Taney  deceased. 

1 8th.  A  painful  rumor,  true,  I  fear,  has  reached  us,  of  the 
massacre,  by  the  rebel  forces  at  Fort  Pillow,  in  the  west  end 
of  Tennessee,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  of  some  three  hundred 
colored  soldiers  and  white  officers,  who  had  just  been 
overpowered  by  their  assailants.  There  seems  to  be  some 
anxiety  in  the  public  mind  whether  the  government  is  doing 
its  duty  to  the  colored  soldier,  and  to  the  service,  at  this  point. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  for  some  time,  the  use  of 
colored  troops  was  not  contemplated;  and  how  the  change  of 
purpose  was  wrought  I  will  not  now  take  time  to  explain. 
Upon  a  clear  conviction  of  duty,  I  resolved  to  turn  that  element 
of  strength  to  account,  and  I  am  responsible  for  it  to  the 
American  people,  to  the  Christian  world,  to  history,  and  in  my 
final  account  to  God.  Having  determined  to  use  the  negro  as  a 
soldier,  there  is  no  way  but  to  give  him  all  the  protection  given 
to  any  other  soldier.     The  difficulty  is  not  in  stating  the 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  407 

principle,  but  in  practically  applying  it.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
suppose  the  Government  is  indifferent  to  this  matter,  or  is  not 
doing  the  best  it  can  in  regard  to  it.  We  do  not  to-day  know 
that  a  colored  soldier  or  white  officer  commanding  colored 
soldiers,  has  been  massacred  by  the  rebels  when  made  a 
prisoner.  We  fear  it,  believe  it,  I  may  say,  but  we  do  not  know 
it.  To  take  the  life  of  one  of  their  prisoners  on  the  assumption 
that  they  murder  ours,  when  it  is  short  of  certainty  that  they 
do  murder  ours,  might  be  too  serious,  too  cruel,  a  mistake. 
We  are  having  the  Fort  Pillow  affair  thoroughly  investigated; 
and  such  investigation  will  probably  show  conclusively  how 
the  truth  is.  If  after  all  that  has  been  said  it  shall  turn  out 
that  there  has  been  no  massacre  at  Fort  Pillow,  it  will  be  almost 
safe  to  say  there  has  been  none,  and  will  be  none,  elsewhere. 
If  there  has  been  the  massacre  of  three  hundred  there,  or  even 
the  tenth  part  of  three  hundred,  it  will  be  conclusively  proved; 
and  being  so  proved,  the  retribution  shall  as  surely  come.  It 
will  be  matter  of  grave  consideration  in  what  exact  course  to 
apply  the  retribution;    but  in  the  supposed  case  it  must  come. 

2 1st.  (To  Major-General  Dix,  New  York.)  Yesterday  I 
was  induced  to  telegraph  the  officer  in  military  command  at 
Fort  Warren,  Boston  Harbor,  Massachusetts,  suspending  the 
execution  of  Charles  Carpenter,  to  be  executed  to-morrow  for 
desertion.  Just  now  on  reading  your  order  in  the  case,  I  tele- 
graphed the  same  officer  withdrawing  the  suspension,  and 
leaving  the  case  entirely  with  you.  The  man's  friends  are 
pressing  me,  but  I  refer  them  to  you,  intending  to  take  no 
further  action  myself. 

28th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Tell  Tad  the  goats  and  father 
are  very  well,  especially  the  goats. 

30th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Not  expecting  to  see  you 
again  before  the  spring  campaign  opens,  I  wish  to  express  in 
this  way  my  entire  satisfaction  with  what  you  have  done  up  to 
this  time,  so  far  as  I  understand  it. 


408  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

The  particulars  of  your  plans  I  neither  know  nor  seek  to 
know.  You  are  vigilant  and  self-reliant;  and,  pleased  with 
this,  I  wish  not  to  obtrude  any  constraints  or  restraints  upon 
you.  While  I  am  very  anxious  that  any  great  disaster  or 
capture  of  our  men  in  great  numbers  shall  be  avoided,  I  know 
these  points  are  less  likely  to  escape  your  attention  than  they 
would  be  mine.  If  there  is  anything  wanting  which  is  within 
my  power  to  give,  do  not  fail  to  let  me  know  it. 

And  now,  with  a  brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God 
sustain  you. 

May  4th.  (To  General  W.  T.  Sherman.)  I  have  an 
imploring  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  citizens  (of  Chattanooga  ) 
who  say  your  Order  No.  8  will  compel  them  to  go  north  of 
Nashville.  This  is  in  no  sense  an  order,  nor  is  it  even  a  request 
that  you  will  do  anything  which  in  the  least  shall  be  a  drawback 
upon  your  military  operations,  but  anything  you  can  do  for 
those  suffering  people,  I  shall  be  glad  of. 

pth.  Enough  is  known  of  army  operations  within  the  last 
five  days  to  claim  an  especial  gratitude  to  God,  while  what 
remains  undone  demands  our  most  sincere  prayers  to,  and 
reliance  upon,  Him  without  whom  all  human  effort  is  vain.  I 
recommend  that  all  patriots,  at  their  homes,  in  their  places  of 
public  worship,  and  wherever  they  may  be,  unite  in  common 
thanksgiving  and  prayer  to  Almighty  God. 

( Response  to  a  Serenade. )  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
for  the  compliment  of  this  call,  though  I  apprehend  it  is  owing 
more  to  the  good  news  received  to-day  from  the  army,  than  a 
desire  to  meet  me.  I  am  indeed  very  grateful  to  the  brave  men 
who  have  been  struggling  with  the  enemy  in  the  field,  to  their 
noble  commanders  who  have  directed  them,  and  especially  to 
our  Maker.  Our  commanders  are  following  up  their  victories 
resolutely  and  successfully.  I  think,  without  knowing  the 
particulars  of  the  plans  of  General  Grant,  that  what  has  been 
accomplished  is  of  more  importance  than  at  first  appears.     I 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  409 

believe,  I  know  (and  am  especially  grateful  to  know)  that 
General  Grant  has  not  been  jostled  in  his  purposes,  that  he  has 
made  all  his  points,  and  to-day  he  is  on  his  line  as  he  purposed 
before  he  moved  his  armies. 

There  is  enough  yet  before  us  requiring  all  loyal  men  and 
patriots  to  perform  their  share  of  the  labor  and  follow  the 
example  of  the  modest  general  at  the  head  of  our  armies,  and 
sink  all  personal  consideration  for  the  sake  of  the  country.  I 
commend  you  to  keep  yourselves  in  the  same  tranquil  mood 
that  is  characteristic  of  this  brave  and  loyal  man. 

1 2th.  (To  S.  C.  Pomeroy.)  I  did  not  doubt  yesterday 
that  you  desired  to  see  me  about  the  appointment  of  assessor 
in  Kansas.  I  wish  you  and  Lane  would  make  a  sincere  effort 
to  get  out  of  the  mood  you  are  in.  It  does  neither  of  you  any 
good.  It  gives  you  the  means  of  tormenting  my  life  out  of 
me,  and  nothing  else. 

14th.  (To  a  Methodist  Delegation.)  In  response  to  your 
address,  allow  me  to  attest  the  accuracy  of  its  historical  state- 
ments, indorse  the  sentiments  it  expresses,  and  thank  you  in 
the  nation's  name  for  the  sure  promise  it  gives.  Nobly 
sustained  as  the  Government  has  been  by  all  the  churches,  I 
would  utter  nothing  which  might  in  the  least  appear  invidious 
against  any.  Yet  without  this,  it  may  fairly  be  said,  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  not  less  devoted  than  the  best,  is 
by  its  greater  numbers  the  most  important  of  all.  It  is  no  fault 
in  others  that  the  Methodist  Church  sends  more  soldiers  to  the 
field,  more  nurses  to  the  hospital,  and  more  prayers  to  Heaven 
than  any.  God  bless  the  Methodist  Church.  Bless  all  the 
churches.  Blessed  be  God,  who,  in  this  our  great  trial,  giveth 
us  the  churches. 

(To  a  Baptist  Delegation.)  In  the  present  very  responsible 
position  in  which  I  am  engaged,  I  have  had  great  cause  of 
gratitude  for  the  support  so  unanimously  given  by  all  Christian 
denominations   of    the   country.      I    have    had    occasion    so 


410  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

frequently  to  respond  to  something  like  this  assemblage,  that  I 
have  said  all  I  had  to  say.  This  particular  body  is,  in  all 
respects,  as  respectable  as  any  that  have  been  presented  to  me. 
The  resolutions  I  have  merely  half  read,  and  I  therefore  beg 
to  be  allowed  an  opportunity  to  make  a  short  response  in 
writing. 

1 8th.  (To  General  J.  A.  Dix.)  Whereas  there  has  been 
wickedly  and  traitorously  printed  and  published  this  morning 
in  the  New  York  World  and  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce, 
newspapers  printed  and  published  in  the  city  of  New  York,  a 
false  and  spurious  proclamation,  purporting  to  be  signed  by 
the  President  and  to  be  countersigned  by  the  Secretary  of  State, 
which  publication  is  of  a  treasonable  nature,  designed  to  give 
aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  and  to  the 
rebels  now  at  war  against  the  government,  and  their  aiders  and 
abettors,  you  are  therefore  hereby  commanded  forthwith  to 
arrest  and  imprison,  in  any  fort  or  military  prison  in  your 
command,  the  editors,  proprietors,  and  publishers  of  the  afore- 
said newspapers,  and  all  such  persons  as,  after  public  notice 
has  been  given  of  the  falsehood  of  said  publication,  print  and 
publish  the  same  with  intent  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
enemy,  and  you  will  hold  the  persons  so  arrested  in  close 
custody  until  they  can  be  brought  to  trial  before  a  military 
commission  for  their  offense.  You  will  also  take  possession 
by  military  force,  of  the  printing  establishments  of  the  New 
York  World  and  Journal  of  Commerce,  and  hold  the  same 
until  further  orders,  and  prevent  further  publication  therefrom. 

June  3rd.  (To  F.  A.  Conkling  and  others.)  Your  letter, 
inviting  me  to  be  present  at  a  mass-meeting  of  loyal  citizens, 
to  be  held  at  New  York,  on  the  4th  instant,  for  the  purpose  of 
expressing  gratitude  to  Lieutenant-General  Grant  for  his  signal 
services,  was  received  yesterday.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to 
attend.  I  approve,  nevertheless,  whatever  may  tend  to 
strengthen  and  sustain  General  Grant  and  the  noble  armies 


ace  551  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  411 

now  under  his  direction.  My  previous  high  estimate  of 
General  Grant  has  been  maintained  and  heightened  by  what 
has  occurred  in  the  remarkable  campaign  he  is  now  conducting, 
while  the  magnitude  and  difficulty  of  the  task  before  him  do 
not  prove  less  than  I  expected.  He  and  his  brave  soldiers  are 
now  in  the  midst  of  their  great  trial,  and  I  trust  that  at  your 
meeting  you  will  so  shape  your  good  words  that  they  may  turn 
to  men  and  guns,  moving  to  his  and  their  support. 

5th.  Mr.  Holt  is  a  good  man,  but  I  had  not  heard  or 
thought  of  him  for  Vice-President.  Wish  not  to  interfere 
about  Vice-President.  Can  not  interfere  about  platform.  Con- 
vention must  judge  for  itself. 

pth.  (To  the  Committee  Notifying  President  Lincoln  of 
Renomination.)  I  will  neither  conceal  my  gratification,  nor 
restrain  the  expression  of  my  gratitude,  that  the  Union  people, 
through  their  convention,  in  their  continued  effort  to  save  and 
advance  the  nation,  have  deemed  me  not  unworthy  to  remain 
in  my  present  position.  I  know  no  reason  to  doubt  that  I  shall 
accept  the  nomination  tendered ;  and  yet,  perhaps,  I  should  not 
declare  definitely  before  reading  and  considering  what  is  called 
the  platform.  I  will  say,  however,  I  approve  the  declaration 
in  favor  of  so  amending  the  Constitution  as  to  prohibit  slavery 
throughout  the  nation. 

(To  an  Ohio  Delegation.)  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
for  this  compliment.  I  have  just  been  saying,  and  will  repeat 
it,  that  the  hardest  of  all  speeches  I  have  to  answer  is  a  serenade. 
I  never  know  what  to  say  on  these  occasions.  I  suppose  that 
you  have  done  me  this  kindness  in  connection  with  the  action  of 
the  Baltimore  convention,  which  has  recently  taken  place,  and 
with  which,  of  course,  I  am  very  well  satisfied.  What  we 
want,  still  more  than  Baltimore  conventions  or  presidential 
elections,  is  success  under  General  Grant.  I  propose  that  you 
constantly  bear  in  mind  that  the  support  you  owe  to  the  brave 
officers  and  soldiers  in  the  field  is  of  the  very  first  importance, 
and  we  should  therefore  bend  all  our  energies  to  that  point. 


4i2  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

(To  a  Delegation  from  the  National  Union  League.)  I  can 
only  say  in  response  to  the  kind  remarks  of  your  chairman,  as  I 
suppose,  that  I  am  very  grateful  for  the  renewed  confidence 
which  has  been  accorded  to  me  both  by  the  convention  and  by 
the  National  League..  I  am  not  insensible  at  all  to  the  personal 
compliment  there  is  in  this,  and  yet  I  do  not  allow  myself  to 
believe  that  any  but  a  small  portion  of  it  is  to  be  appropriated 
as  a  personal  compliment  to  me.  That  really  the  convention 
and  the  Union  League  assembled  with  a  higher  view — that  of 
taking  care  of  the  interests  of  the  country  for  the  present  and 
the  great  future — and  that  the  part  I  am  entitled  to  ap- 
propriate as  a  compliment  is  only  that  part  which  I  may  lay 
hold  of  as  being  the  opinion  of  the  convention  and  of  the 
League,  that  I  am  not  entirely  unworthy  to  be  intrusted  with 
the  place  which  I  have  occupied  for  the  last  three  years.  But 
I  do  not  allow  myself  to  suppose  that  either  the  convention  or 
the  League  have  concluded  to  decide  that  I  am  either  the 
greatest  or  best  man  in  America,  but  rather  they  have  concluded 
that  it  is  not  best  to  swap  horses  while  crossing  the  river,  and 
have  further  concluded  that  I  am  not  so  poor  a  horse  that  they 
might  not  make  a  botch  of  it  in  trying  to  swap. 

13th.  (To  General  L.  Thomas.)  Complaint  is  made  to 
me  that  in  the  vicinity  of  Henderson  our  militia  are  seizing 
negroes  and  carrying  them  off  without  their  own  consent,  and 
according  to  no  rules  whatever  except  those  of  absolute 
violence.  I  wish  you  would  look  into  this  and  inform  me,  and 
see  that  the  making  soldiers  of  negroes  is  done  according  to 
the  rules  you  are  acting  upon,  so  that  unnecessary  provocation 
and  irritation  be  avoided. 

1 6th.  (At  a  Sunday  fair  in  Philadelphia.)  We  accepted 
this  war,  and  did  not  begin  it.  We  accepted  it  for  an  object, 
and  when  that  object  is  accomplished  the  war  will  end,  and  I 
hope  to  God  it  will  never  end  until  that  object  is  accomplished. 
We  are  going  through  with  our  task,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
if  it  takes  us  three  years  longer. 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  413 

ipth.     (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)     Tad  arrived  safely  and  all  well. 

20th.  What  I  said  to  Postmaster  of  Philadelphia  on  this 
day — June  20,  1864: 

Complaint  is  made  to  me  that  you  are  using  your  official 
power  to  defeat  Judge  Kelley's  renomination  to  Congress. 

I  am  well  satisfied  with  Judge  Kelley  as  a  member  of 
Congress,  and  I  do  not  know  that  the  man  who  might  supplant 
him  would  be  as  satisfactory;  but  the  correct  principle,  I 
think,  is  that  all  our  friends  should  have  absolute  freedom  of 
choice  among  our  friends.  My  wish,  therefore,  is  that  you 
will  do  just  as  y©u  think  fit  with  your  own  suffrage  in  the 
case,  and  not  constrain  any  of  your  subordinates  to  do  other 
than  he  thinks  fit  with  his. 

This  is  precisely  the  rule  I  inculcated  and  adhered  to  on  my 
part  when  a  certain  other  nomination  now  recently  made  was 
being  canvassed  for, 

24th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  All  well  and  very  warm.  Tad 
and  I  have  been  to  General  Grant's  army.  Returned  yesterday 
safe  and  sound. 

2/th.  (To  William  Cullen  Bryant.)  Yours  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  has  just  been  handed  me  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 
The  tone  of  the  letter,  rather  than  any  direct  statement  in  it, 
impresses  me  as  a  complaint  that  Mr.  Henderson  should  have 
been  removed  from  office,  and  arrested,  coupled  with  the 
single  suggestion  that  he  be  restored  if  he  shall  establish  his 
innocence. 

I  know  absolutely  nothing  of  the  case  except  as  follows: 
Monday  last,  Mr.  Welles  came  to  me  with  the  letter  of 
dismissal  already  written,  saying  he  thought  proper  to  show  it 
to  me  before  sending  it.  I  asked  him  the  charges,  which  he 
stated  in  a  general  way.  With  as  much  emphasis  as  I  could,  I 
said:  "Are  you  entirely  certain  of  his  guilt ?"  He  answered 
that  he  was,  to  which  I  replied :     "Then  send  the  letter.'' 

Whether  Mr.  Henderson  was  a  supporter  of  my  second 


414  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

nomination,  I  neither  knew  nor  inquired,  nor  even  thought  of. 
I  shall  be  very  glad  indeed  if  he  shall,  as  you  anticipate,  estab- 
lish his  innocence;  or,  to  state  it  more  strongly  and  properly, 
"if  the  government  shall  fail  to  establish  his  guilt."  I  believe, 
however,  the  man  who  made  the  affidavit  was  of  as  spotless 
reputation  as  Mr.  Henderson,  until  he  was  arrested  on  what  his 
friends  insist  was  outrageously  insufficient  evidence.  I  know 
the  entire  city  government  of  Washington,  with  many  other 
respectable  citizens,  appealed  to  me  in  his  behalf  as  a  greatly 
injured  gentleman. 

While  the  subject  is  up,  may  I  ask  whether  the  Evening 
Post  has  not  assailed  me  for  supposed  too  lenient  dealing  with 
persons  charged  with  fraud  and  crime?  And  that  in  cases  of 
which  the  Post  could  know  but  little  of  the  facts?  I  shall 
certainly  deal  as  leniently  with  Mr.  Henderson  as  I  have  felt 
it  my  duty  to  deal  with  others,  notwithstanding  any  newspaper 
assaults. 

(To  William  Dennison  and  others.)  Your  letter  of  the 
14th  instant,  formally  notifying  me  that  I  have  been  nom- 
inated by  the  convention  you  represent  for  the  Presidency  of 
the  United  States  for  four  years  from  the  4th  of  March  next, 
has  been  received.  The  nomination  is  gratefully  accepted,  as 
the  resolutions  of  the  convention,  called  the  platform,  are 
heartily  approved. 

While  the  resolution  in  regard  to  the  supplanting  of  re- 
publican government  upon  the  Western  Continent  is  fully  con- 
curred in,  there  might  be  misunderstanding  were  I  not  to  say 
that  the  position  of  the  Government  in  relation  to  the  action 
of  France  in  Mexico,  as  assumed  through  the  State  Depart- 
ment and  approved  and  indorsed  by  the  convention  among  the 
measures  and  acts  of  the  Executive,  will  be  faithfully  main- 
tained as  long  as  the  state  of  facts  shall  leave  that  position 
pertinent  and  applicable. 

28th.      (To  Secretary  Chase.)     Yours,  inclosing  a  blank 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  415 

nomination  for  Maunsell  B.  Field  to  be  Assistant  Treasurer 
at  New  York,  was  received  yesterday.  I  can  not,  without  much 
embarrassment,  make  this  appointment,  principally  because  of 
Senator  Morgan's  very  firm  opposition  to  it. 

I  do  not  think  Mr.  Field  a  very  proper  man  for  the  place; 
but  I  would  trust  your  judgment  and  forego  this  were  the 
greater  difficulty  out  of  the  way.  Much  as  I  personally  like 
Mr.  Barney,  it  has  been  a  great  burden  to  me  to  retain  him  in 
his  place,  when  nearly  all  our  friends  in  New  York  were, 
directly  or  indirectly,  urging  his  removal.  Then  the  appoint- 
ment of  Hogeboom  to  be  General  Appraiser,  brought  me  to, 
and  has  ever  since  kept  me  at  the  verge  of  open  revolt.  Now, 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  Field  would  precipitate  me  in  it,  unless 
Senator  Morgan,  and  those  feeling  as  he  does,  could  be  brought 
to  concur  in  it.  Strained  as  I  already  am  at  this  point,  I  do 
not  think  I  can  make  this  appointment  in  the  direction  of  still 
greater  strain. 

29th.  (To  General  F.  Steele.)  I  understand  that  Con- 
gress declines  to  admit  to  seats  the  persons  sent  as  senators 
and  representatives  from  Arkansas.  These  persons  apprehend 
that,  in  consequence,  you  may  not  support  the  new  State  gov- 
ernment there  as  you  otherwise  would.  My  wish  is  that  you 
give  that  government  and  the  people  there  the  same  support 
and  protection  that  you  would  if  the  members  had  been  ad- 
mitted, because  in  no  event,  nor  in  any  view  of  the  case,  can 
this  do  any  harm,  while  it  will  be  the  best  you  can  do  toward 
suppressing  the  rebellion. 

30th.  (To  Secretary  Chase.)  Your  resignation  of  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  sent  me  yesterday  is  ac- 
cepted. Of  all  I  have  said  in  commendation  of  your  ability 
and  fidelity,  I  have  nothing  to  unsay ;  and  yet  you  and  I  have 
reached  a  point  of  mutual  embarrassment  in  our  official  re- 
lations which,  it  seems,  can  not  be  overcome  or  longer  sustained 
consistently  with  the  public  service. 


416  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

July  4th.  (To  Senator  Chandler  who  demands  his  signa- 
ture to  a  punitive  Reconstruction  Bill.) 

This  bill  has  been  placed  before  me  a  few  minutes  before 
Congress  adjourns.  It  is  a  matter  of  too  much  importance  to 
be  swallowed  in  that  way. 

(Chandler:  If  it  is  vetoed  it  will  damage  us  fearfully  in 
the  Northwest.  The  important  point  is  the  one  prohibiting 
slavery  in  the  Reconstructed  States.) 

That  is  the  point  on  which  I  doubt  the  authority  of  Con- 
gress to  act. 

(Chandler:    It  is  no  more  than  you  have  done  yourself.) 

I  conceive  that  I  may  in  an  emergency  do  things  on  military 
grounds  which  can  not  constitutionally  be  done  by  Congress. 

(Chandler  angrily  leaves  the  room.) 

I  do  not  see  how  any  of  us  now  can  deny  and  contradict 
what  we  have  always  said,  that  Congress  has  no  constitutional 
power  over  slavery  in  the  States. 

If  they  (Chandler  and  other  radicals)  choose  to  make  a 
point  on  this,  I  do  not  doubt  that  they  can  do  harm.  They 
have  never  been  friendly  to  me.  At  all  events,  I  must  keep 
some  consciousness  of  being  somewhere  near  right.  I  must 
keep  some  standard  of  principle  fixed  within  myself. 

5th.  (To  Lamon.)  I  fear  I  have  made  Senator  Wade  of 
Ohio  my  enemy  for  life.  Wade  was  here  just  now  urging  me 
to  dismiss  Grant,  and,  in  response  to  something  he  said,  I  re- 
marked,  "Senator,  that  reminds  me  of  a  story.', 

(What  did  Wade  say?) 

He  said,  in  a  petulant  way  "It  is  with  you,  sir,  all  story, 
story!  You  are  the  father  of  every  military  blunder  that  has 
been  made  during  the  war.  This  government  is  on  the  road 
to  hell,  sir,  by  reason  of  your  obstinacy,  and  you  are  not  a 
mile  from  there  this  minute/' 
(What  did  you  say  then?) 

I  good-naturedly  said  to  him,    "Senator,  that  is  just  about 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  417 

the  distance  from  here  to  the  capitol,  is  it  not  ?"  He  was  very- 
angry,  grabbed  up  his  hat  and  cane,  and  went  away.* 

8th.  (Proclamation.)  Whereas,  at  the  late  session  Con- 
gress passed  a  bill  to  "guarantee  to  certain  States,  whose  gov- 
ernments have  been  usurped  or  overthrown,  a  republican  form 
of  government,"  a  copy  of  which  is  hereunto  annexed; 

And  whereas  the  said  bill  was  presented  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States  for  his  approval  less  than  one  hour  before 
the  sine  die  adjournment  of  said  session,  and  was  not  signed 
by  him; 

And  whereas  the  said  bill  contains,  among  other  things,  a 
plan  for  restoring  the  States  in  rebellion  to  their  proper  prac- 
tical relation  in  the  Union,  which  plan  expresses  the  sense  of 
Congress  upon  that  subject,  and  which  plan  it  is  now  thought 
fit  to  lay  before  the  people  for  their  consideration; 

Now,  therefore,  I>  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  that 
while  I  am  (as  I  was  in  December  last  when  by  proclamation 
I  propounded  a  plan  for  restoration)  unprepared,  by  a  formal 
approval  of  this  bill,  to  be  inflexibly  committed  to  any  single 
plan  of  restoration ;  and,  while  I  am  also  unprepared  to  declare 
that  the  free-State  constitutions  and  governments  already 
adopted  and  installed  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  shall  be  set 
aside  and  held  for  naught,  thereby  repelling  and  discouraging 
the  loyal  citizens  who  have  set  up  the  same  as  to  further  effort, 
or  to  declare  a  constitutional  competency  in  Congress  to  abol- 
ish slavery  in  States,  but  am  at  the  same  time  sincerely  hoping 
and  expecting  that  a  constitutional  amendment  abolishing 
slavery  throughout  the  nation  may  be  adopted,  nevertheless 
I  am  fully  satisfied  with  the  system  for  restoration  contained 
in  the  bill  as  one  very  proper  plan  for  the  loyal  people  of  any 
State  choosing  to  adopt  it,  and  that  I  am,  and  at  all  times 
shall  be,  prepared  to  give  the  executive  aid  and  assistance  to 


*Date  conjectural. 


418  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  Um 

any  such  people,  so  soon  as  the  military  resistance  to  the  United 
States  shall  have  been  suppressed  in  any  such  State,  and  the 
people  thereof  shall  have  sufficiently  returned  to  their  obe- 
dience to  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  in 
which  case  military  governors  will  be  appointed,  with  direc- 
tions to  proceed  according  to  the  bill. 

pth.  (To  Horace  Greeley.)  If  you  can  find  any  person 
anywhere  professing  to  have  any  proposition  of  Jefferson 
Davis  in  writing,  for  peace,  embracing  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  and  abandonment  of  slavery,  whatever  else  it  embraces, 
say  to  him  he  may  come  to  me  with  you;  and  that  if  he  really 
brings  such  proposition,  he  shall  at  the  least  have  safe-conduct 
with  the  paper  (and  without  publicity,  if  he  chooses)  to  the 
point  where  you  shall  have  met  him.  The  same  if  there  be  two 
or  more  persons. 

loth.  (To  Thomas  Swann  and  others,  Baltimore,  Md.) 
I  have  not  a  single  soldier  but  who  is  being  disposed  by  the 
military  for  the  best  protection  of  all.  By  latest  accounts  the 
enemy  is  moving  on  Washington.  They  can  not  fly  to  either 
place.  Let  us  be  vigilant,  but  keep  cool.  I  hope  neither  Bal- 
timore nor  Washington  will  be  sacked. 

(To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Your  despatch  to  General 
Halleck,  referring  to  what  I  may  think  in  the  present  emer- 
gency is  shown  me.  General  Halleck  says  we  have  absolutely  no 
force  here  fit  to  go  to  the  field.  He  thinks  that  with  the  one 
hundred  day  men  and  invalids  we  have  here  we  can  defend 
Washington,  and  scarcely  Baltimore.  Besides  these  there  are 
about  8,000,  not  very  reliable,  under  Howe,  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
with  Hunter  approaching  that  point  very  slowly,  with  what 
number  I  suppose  you  know  better  than  I.  Wallace,  with  some 
odds  and  ends,  and  part  of  what  came  up  with  Ricketts,  was  so 
badly  beaten  yesterday  at  Monocacy,  that  what  is  left  can  attempt 
no  more  than  to  defend  Baltimore.  What  we  shall  get  in  from 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York  will  scarcely  be  worth  counting, 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  419 

I  fear.  Now,  what  I  think  is,  that  you  should  provide  to  re- 
tain your  hold  where  you  are,  certainly,  and  bring  the  rest 
with  you  personally,  and  make  a  vigorous  effort  to  destroy 
the  enemy's  forces  in  this  vicinity.  I  think  there  is  really  a 
fair  chance  to  do  this,  if  the  movement  is  prompt.  This  is 
what  I  think  upon  your  suggestion,  and  is  not  an  order. 

Early  having  threatened  Washington  is  kept  from  seizing 
the  city  by  the  prompt  movements  of  General  Wright. 

nth.  The  enemy  will  learn  of  Wright's  arrival,  and  then 
the  difficulty  will  be  to  unite  Wright  and  Hunter  south  of  the 
enemy  before  he  will  recross  the  Potomac.  Some  firing  be- 
tween Rockville  and  here  now. 

1 2th.  (To  Grant.)  Vague  rumors  have  been  reaching 
us  for  two  or  three  days  that  Longstreet's  corps  is  also  on  its 
way  to  this  vicinity.  Look  out  for  its  absence  from  your 
front. 

14th.  (To  Secretary  Stanton.)  Your  note  of  to-day 
inclosing  General  Halleck's  letter  of  yesterday  relative  to 
offensive  remarks  supposed  to  have  been  made  by  the  Post- 
master-General concerning  the  military  officers  on  duty  about 
Washington  is  received.  The  general's  letter  in  substance  de- 
mands of  me  that  if  I  approve  the  remarks  I  shall  strike  the 
names  of  those  officers  from  the  rolls;  and  that  if  I  do  not 
approve  them  the  Postmaster-General  shall  be  dismissed  from 
the  Cabinet. 

Whether  the  remarks  were  really  made  I  do  not  know,  nor 
do  I  suppose  such  knowledge  is  necessary  to  a  correct  response. 
If  they  were  made,  I  do  not  approve  them;  and  yet,  under  the 
circumstances,  I  would  not  dismiss  a  member  of  the  Cabinet 
therefor.  I  do  not  consider  what  may  have  been  hastily  said 
in  a  moment  of  vexation  at  so  severe  a  loss  is  sufficient 
ground  for  so  grave  a  step.    Besides  this,  truth  is  generally  the 


420  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

best  vindication  against  slander.  I  propose  continuing  to  be 
myself  the  judge  as  to  when  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  shall  be 
dismissed. 

(To  the  Cabinet.)  I  must  myself  be  the  judge  how  long  to 
retain  in  and  when  to  remove  any  of  you  from  his  position.  It 
would  greatly  pain  me  to  discover  any  of  you  endeavoring  to 
procure  another's  removal,  or  in  any  way  to  prejudice  him 
before  the  public.  Such  endeavor  would  be  a  wrong  to  me, 
and,  much  worse,  a  wrong  to  the  country.  My  wish  is  that 
on  this  subject  no  remark  be  made  nor  question  asked  by  any 
of  you,  here  or  elsewhere,  now  or  hereafter. 

Horace  Greeley  has  attempted  informal  peace  negotiations 
with  Confederate  agents  in  Canada. 

15th.  (To  Greeley.)  Yours  of  the  13th  is  just  received, 
and  I  am  disappointed  that  you  have  not  already  reached  here 
with  those  commissioners,  if  they  would  consent  to  come  on 
being  shown  my  letter  to  you  of  the  9th  instant.  Show  that 
and  this  to  them,  and  if  they  will  come  on  the  terms  stated  in 
the  former,  bring  them.  I  not  only  intend  a  sincere  effort  for 
peace,  but  I  intend  that  you  shall  be  a  personal  witness  that  it 
is  made. 

16th.  The  President  of  the  United  States  directs  that  the 
four  persons  whose  names  follow — to  wit :  Honorable  Clement 
C.  Clay,  Honorable  Jacob  Thompson,  Professor  James  B. 
Holcombe,  George  N.  Sanders,  shall  have  safe  conduct  to  the 
city  of  Washington  in  company  with  the  Honorable  Horace 
Greeley,  and  shall  be  exempt  from  arrest  or  annoyance  of  any 
kind  from  any  officer  of  the  United  States  during  their  jour- 
ney to  the  said  city  of  Washington. 

18th.  To  whom  it  may  concern:  Any  proposition 
which  embraces  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  integrity 
of  the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  and 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  421 

which  comes  by  and  with  an  authority  that  can  control  the 
armies  now  at  war  against  the  United  States,  will  be  received 
and  considered  by  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United 
States,  and  will  be  met  by  liberal  terms  on  other  substantial 
and  collateral  points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof  shall 
have  safe-conduct  both  ways. 

25th.  The  men  of  the  South  recently  (and  perhaps  still) 
at  Niagara  Falls  tell  us  distinctly  that  they  are  in  the  confiden- 
tial employment  of  the  rebellion;  and  they  tell  us  distinctly  that 
they  are  not  empowered  to  offer  terms  of  peace.  Does  any  one 
ioubt  that  what  they  are  empowered  to  do  is  to  assist  in  selecting 
and  arranging  a  candidate  and  a  platform  for  the  Chicago 
convention?  Who  could  have  given  them  this  confidential 
employment  but  he  who,  only  a  week  since,  declared  to 
Jaquess  and  Gilmore,  that  he  had  no  terms  of  peace  but  the 
independence  of  the  South — the  dissolution  of  the  Union? 
Thus,  the  present  presidential  contest  will  almost  certainly  be 
no  other  than  a  contest  between  a  union  and  a  disunion  candi- 
date, disunion  certainly  following  the  success  of  the  latter. 
The  issue  is  a  mighty  one,  for  all  people,  and  all  times;  and 
whoever  aids  the  right  will  be  appreciated  and  remembered. 

26th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  The  President  desires 
you  to  name,  if  you  can,  a  time  when  it  would  be  convenient 
for  you  to  meet  him  in  person  at  Fortress  Monroe  after  Thurs- 
day morning. 

August  3rd.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  I  have  seen  your 
despatch  in  which  you  say,  "I  want  Sheridan  put  in  command 
of  all  the  troops  in  the  field,  with  instructions  to  put  himself 
south  of  the  enemy,  and  follow  him  to  the  death.  Wherever 
the  enemy  goes,  let  our  troops  go  also."  This,  I  think,  is 
exactly  right  as  to  how  our  forces  should  move,  but  please 
look  over  the  despatches  you  may  have  received  from  here, 
ever  since  you  made  that  order,  and  discover,  if  you  can,  that 
there  is  any  idea  in  the  head  of  any  one  here  of  "putting  our 


422  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

army  south  of  the  enemy,' '  or  of  "following  him  to  the  death/' 
in  any  direction.  I  repeat  to  you,  it  will  neither  be  done  nor 
attempted,  unless  you  watch  it  every  day  and  hour  and  force  it. 

$th.  Senator  Wade  and  Henry  Winter  Davis  publish  a  bit- 
ter attack  on  Lincoln's  policy  which  has  come  to  be  known  as 
the  <(Wade-Davis  Manifesto."  They  stigmatise  his  rejection  of 
the  reconstruction  policy  of  Congress  as  "a  studied  outrage  on 
the  legislative  authority  of  the  people."  Wendell  Phillips  also 
denounces  him. 

I  have  not  seen  (these  attacks  upon  me)  nor  do  I  care  to 
see  them.  I  have  seen  enough  to  satisfy  me  I  am  a  failure, 
not  only  in  the  opinion  of  the  people  in  the  rebellion,  but  of 
many  distinguished  politicians  in  my  own  party.  But  time 
will  show  whether  I  am  right  or  they  are  right,  and  I  am  con- 
tent to  abide  its  decision.  I  have  enough  to  look  after  without 
giving  much  of  my  time  to  the  consideration  of  who  shall  be 
my  successor  in  office.  The  position  is  not  an  easy  one;  and 
the  occupant,  whoever  he  may  be,  for  the  next  four  years,  will 
have  little  leisure  to  pluck  a  thorn  or  plant  a  rose  in  his  own 
pathway. 

Our  friends,  Wade,  Davis,  Phillips,  and  others  are  hard 
to  please.  I  am  not  capable  of  doing  so.  I  can  not  please 
them  without  wantonly  violating  not  only  my  oath,  but  the 
most  vital  principles  upon  which  our  government  was  founded. 
As  to  those  who,  like  Wade  and  the  rest,  see  fit  to  depreciate 
my  policy  and  cavil  at  my  official  acts,  I  shall  not  complain 
of  them.  I  accord  them  the  utmost  freedom  of  speech  and 
liberty  of  the  press,  but  shall  not  change  the  policy  I  have 
adopted  in  the  full  belief  that  I  am  right.  I  feel  on  this  sub- 
ject as  an  Illinois  farmer  once  expressed  himself  while  eating 
cheese.  He  was  interrupted  in  the  midst  of  his  repast  by  the 
entrance  of  his  son,  who  exclaimed,  "Hold  on,  dad!  there's 
skippers  in  that  cheese  you  are  eating!" 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  423 

"Never  mind,  Tom,"  said  he,  as  he  kept  on  munching  his 
cheese,  "if  they  can  stand  it  I  can."* 

6th.  (To  Horace  Greeley.)  Yours  to  Major  Hay  about 
publication  of  our  correspondence  received.  With  the  sup- 
pression of  a  few  passages  in  your  letters  in  regard  to  which 
I  think  you  and  I  would  not  disagree,  I  should  be  glad  of  the 
publication.    Please  come  over  and  see  me. 

8  th.  (To  Horace  Greeley.)  I  telegraphed  you  Saturday. 
Did  you  receive  my  despatch?    Please  answer. 

(To  General  S.  G.  Burbridge.)  Last  December  Mrs. 
Emily  T.  Helm,  half-sister  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  widow  of  the 
rebel  general,  Ben.  Hardin  Helm,  stopped  here  on  her  way 
from  Georgia  to  Kentucky,  and  I  gave  her  a  paper,  as  I  re- 
member, to  protect  her  against  the  mere  fact  of  her  being 
General  Helm's  widow.  I  hear  a  rumor  to-day  that  you 
recently  sought  to  arrest  her,  but  were  prevented  by  her  pre- 
senting the  paper  from  me.  I  do  not  intend  to  protect  her 
against  the  consequences  of  disloyal  words  or  acts,  spoken  or 
done  by  her  since  her  return  to  Kentucky,  and  if  the  paper 
given  her  by  me  can  be  construed  to  give  her  protection  for 
such  words  or  acts,  it  is  hereby  revoked  pro  tanto.  Deal  with 
her  for  current  conduct  just  as  you  would  with  any  other. 

pth.  (To  Horace  Greeley.)  Herewith  is  a  full  copy  of  the 
correspondence,  and  which  I  have  had  privately  printed,  but 
not  made  public.  The  parts  of  your  letters  which  I  wish  sup- 
pressed are  only  those  which,  as  I  think,  give  too  gloomy  an 
aspect  to  our  cause,  and  those  which  present  the  carrying  of 
elections  as  a  motive  of  action.  I  have,  as  you  see,  drawn  a  red 
pencil  over  the  parts  I  wish  suppressed. 

As  to  the  Alexander  H.  Stephens  matter,  so  much  pressed 
by  you,  I  can  only  say  that  he  sought  to  come  to  Washington 
in  the  name  of  the  "Confederate  States,"  in  a  vessel  of  "the 
Confederate  States  navy,"  and  with  no  pretense  even  that  he 


*Date  approximate. 


424'  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

would  bear  any  proposal  for  peace ;  but  with  language  showing 
that  his  mission  would  be  military,  and  not  civil  or  diplomatic. 
Nor  has  he  at  any  time  since  pretended  that  he  had  terms  of 
peace,  so  far  as  I  know  or  believe.  On  the  contrary,  Jefferson 
Davis  has,  in  the  most  formal  manner,  declared  that  Stephens 
had  no  terms  of  peace.  I  thought  we  could  not  afford  to  give 
this  quasi-acknowledgment  of  the  independence  of  the  Confed- 
eracy, in  a  case  where  there  was  not  even  an  intimation  of 
anything  for  our  good.  Still,  as  the  parts  of  your  letters  relat- 
ing to  Stephens  contain  nothing  worse  than  a  questioning  of 
my  action,  I  do  not  ask  a  suppression  of  those  parts. 

(To  General  N.  P.  Banks.)  I  have  just  seen  the  new 
constitution  adopted  by  the  Convention  at  Louisiana ;  and  I  am 
anxious  that  it  shall  be  ratified  by  the  people.  I  will  thank 
you  to  let  the  civil  officers  in  Louisiana,  holding  under  me, 
know  that  this  is  my  wish,  and  let  me  know  at  once  who  of 
them  openly  declare  for  the  constitution,  and  who  of  them,  if 
any,  decline  to  so  declare. 

14th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  The  Secretary  of  War 
and  I  concur  that  you  had  better  confer  with  General  Lee,  and 
stipulate  for  a  mutual  discontinuance  of  house-burning  and 
other  destruction  of  private  property.  The  time  and  maimer 
of  conference  and  particulars  of  stipulation  we  leave,  on  our 
part,  to  your  convenience  and  judgment. 

15th.  (Mr.  President,  said  Governor  Randall,  why  can't 
you  seek  seclusion,  and  play  hermit  for  a  fortnight  ?  It  would 
reinvigorate  you.) 

Ah,  two  or  three  weeks  would  do  me  no  good.  I  can  not 
fly  from  my  thoughts — my  solicitude  for  this  great  country 
follows  me  wherever  I  go.  I  do  not  think  it  is  personal  vanity 
or  ambition,  though  I  am  not  free  from  these  infirmities,  but 
I  can  not  but  feel  that  the  weal  or  woe  of  this  great  nation 
will  be  decided  in  November.  There  is  no  program  offered 
by  any  wing  of  the  Democratic  party  but  that  must  result  in 
the  permanent  destruction  of  the  Union. 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  425 

(To  Henry  J.  Raymond.)  I  have  proposed  to  Mr.  Greeley 
that  the  Niagara  correspondence  be  published,  suppressing  only 
the  parts  of  his  letters  over  which  the  red  pencil  is  drawn  in 
the  copy  which  I  herewith  send.  He  declines  giving  his  consent 
to  the  publication  of  his  letters  unless  these  parts  be  published 
with  the  rest.  I  have  concluded  that  it  is  better  for  me  to 
submit,  for  the  time,  to  the  consequences  of  the  false  position 
in  which  I  consider  he  has  placed  me,  than  to  subject  the  coun- 
try to  the  consequences  of  publishing  their  discouraging  and 
injurious  parts.  I  send  you  this  and  the  accompanying  copy, 
not  for  publication,  but  merely  to  explain  to  you,  and  that  you 
may  preserve  them  until  their  proper  time  shall  come. 

Ifth.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  I  have  seen  your  des- 
patch expressing  your  unwillingness  to  break  your  hold  where 
you  are.  Neither  am  I  willing.  Hold  on  with  a  bull-dog  grip, 
and  chew  and  choke  as  much  as  possible. 

(Unfinished  memorandum.)  To  me  it  seems  plain  that 
saying  reunion  and  abandonment  of  slavery  would  be  con- 
sidered, if  offered,  is  not  saying  that  nothing  else  or  less 
would  be  considered,  if  offered. 

The  way  these  [emancipation]  measures  were  to  help  the 
cause  was  not  to  be  by  magic  or  miracles,  but  by  inducing  the 
colored  people  to  come  bodily  over  from  the  rebel  side  to  ours. 

Drive  back  to  the  support  of  the  rebellion  the  physical 
force  which  the  colored  people  now  give  and  promise  us,  and 
neither  the  present,  nor  any  coming  administration  can  save 
the  Union.  Take  from  us  and  give  to  the  enemy  the  hundred 
and  thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  thousand  colored  persons  now  serv- 
ing us  as  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers,  and  we  can  not  longer 
maintain  the  contest. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  sentiment  or  taste,  but  one  of  physical 
force,  which  may  be  measured  and  estimated,  as  horse-power 
and  steam-power  are  measured  and  estimated.    And  by  meas- 


426  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

urement  it  is  more  than  we  can  lose  and  live.  Nor  can  we  by 
discarding  it  get  a  white  force  in  place  of  it.  There  is  a  wit- 
ness in  every  white  man's  bosom  that  he  would  rather  go  to 
the  war  having  the  negro  to  help  him  than  to  help  the  enemy 
against  him.  It  is  not  the  giving  of  one  class  for  another — it  is 
simply  giving  a  large  force  to  the  enemy  for  nothing  in  return. 

If  Jefferson  Davis  wishes  for  himself,  or  for  the  benefit 
of  his  friends  at  the  North,  to  know  what  I  would  do  if  he 
were  to  offer  peace  and  reunion,  saying  nothing  about  slavery, 
let  him  try  me. 

1 8th.  (To  the  164th  Ohio  Regiment.)  You  are  about  to 
return  to  your  homes  and  your  friends,  after  having,  as  I 
learn,  performed  in  camp  a  comparatively  short  term  of  duty 
in  this  great  contest.  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you,  and  to  all 
who  have  come  forward  at  the  call  of  their  country. 

I  wish  it  might  be  more  generally  and  universally  under- 
stood what  the  country  is  now  engaged  in..  We  have,  as  all 
will  agree,  a  free  Government,  where  every  man  has  a  right  to 
be  equal  with  every  other  man.  In  this  great  struggle,  this 
form  of  Government  and  every  form  of  human  right  is  en- 
dangered if  our  enemies  succeed.  There  is  more  involved  in 
this  contest  than  is  realized  by  every  one.  There  is  involved  in 
this  struggle  the  question  whether  your  children  and  my  chil- 
dren shall  enjoy  the  privileges  we  have  enjoyed.  I  say  this  in 
order  to  impress  upon  you,  if  you  are  not  already  so  impressed, 
that  no  small  matter  should  divert  us  from  our  great  purpose. 

20th.  (To  General  B.  F.  Butler.)  Please  allow  Judge 
Snead  to  go  to  his  family  on  Eastern  Shore  or  give  me  some 
good  reason  why  not. 

22nd.  (To  the  1 66th  Ohio  Regiment.)  I  most  always 
feel  inclined,  when  I  happen  to  say  anything  to  soldiers,  to 
impress  upon  them,  in  a  few  brief  remarks,  the  importance  of 
success  in  this  contest.  It  is  not  merely  for  the  day,  but  for  all 
time  to  come,  that  we  should  perpetuate  for  our  children's 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  427 

children  that  great  and  free  government  which  we  have  enjoyed 
all  our  lives.  I  beg  you  to  remember  this,  not  merely  for  my 
sake,  but  for  yours.  I  happen,  temporarily,  to  occupy  this 
White  House.  I  am  a  living  witness  that  any  one  of  your 
children  may  look  to  come  here  as  my  father's  child  has.  It  is 
in  order  that  each  one  of  you  may  have,  through  this  free 
government  which  we  have  enjoyed,  an  open  field  and  a  fair 
chance  for  your  industry,  enterprise,  and  intelligence ;  that  you 
may  all  have  equal  privileges  in  the  race  of  life,  with  all  its 
desirable  human  aspirations — it  is  for  this  the  struggle  should 
be  maintained,  that  we  may  not  lose  our  birthright — not  only 
for  one,  but  for  two  or  three  years,  if  necessary.  The  nation 
is  worth  fighting  for,  to  secure  such  an  inestimable  jewel. 

23rd.  This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seems  ex- 
ceedingly probable  that  this  administration  will  not  be  re- 
elected. Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so  cooperate  with  the 
President-elect  as  to  save  the  Union  between  the  election  and 
the  inauguration,  as  he  will  have  secured  his  election  on  such 
ground  that  he  can  not  possibly  save  it  afterward.* 

24th.  (To  Henry  J.  Raymond.)  (Not  sent  or  used.) 
You  will  proceed  forthwith  and  obtain,  if  possible,  a  conference 
for  peace  with  Honorable  Jefferson  Davis,  or  any  person  by 
him  authorized  for  that  purpose.  You  will  address  him  in  en- 
tirely respectful  terms,  at  all  events,  and  in  any  that  may  be 
indispensable  to  secure  the  conference.  At  said  conference 
you  will  propose,  on  behalf  of  this  government,  that  upon  the 
restoration  of  the  Union  and  the  national  authority  the  war 
shall  cease  at  once,  all  remaining  questions  to  be  left  for  adjust- 
ment by  peaceful  modes.  If  this  be  accepted,  hostilities  to 
cease  at  once.  If  it  be  not  accepted,  you  will  then  request  to 
be  informed  what  terms,  if  any,  embracing  the  restoration  of 
the  Union  would  be  accepted.  If  any  such  be  presented  you 
in  answer,  you  will  forthwith  report  the  same  to  this  govern- 


*See  p.  436. 


428  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

ment,  and  await  further  instructions.  If  the  presentation  of 
any  terms  embracing  the  restoration  of  the  Union  be  declined, 
you  will  then  request  to  be  informed  what  terms  of  peace 
would  be  accepted;  and,  on  receiving  any  answer,  report  the 
same  to  this  government,  and  await  further  instructions. 

September  1st.  It  is  represented  to  me  that  there  are  at 
Rock  Island,  111.,  as  rebel  prisoners  of  war,  many  persons  of 
Northern  and  foreign  birth  who  are  unwilling  to  be  exchanged 
and  sent  South,  but  who  wish  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
and  enter  the  military  service  of  the  Union. 

Colonel  Huidekoper,  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  some  parts 
of  Pennsylvania,  wishes  to  pay  the  bounties  the  government 
would  have  to  pay  to  proper  persons  of  this  class,  have  them 
enter  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  be  credited  to  the 
localities  furnishing  the  bounty  money.  He  will  therefore 
proceed  to  Rock  Island,  ascertain  the  names  of  such  persons 
(not  including  any  who  have  attractions  Southward),  and 
telegraph  them  to  the  Provost-Marshal  General  here,  where- 
upon direction  will  be  given  to  discharge  the  persons  named 
upon  their  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance ;  and  then  upon  the 
official  evidence  being  furnished  that  they  shall  have  been 
duly  received  and  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  their  number  will  be  credited  as  may  be  directed  by 
Colonel  Huidekoper. 

(To  Stanton  who  protests  vehemently  against  an  order  of 
Lincoln  for  enlistment  of  prisoners  of  war  who  wish  to  enter 
the  Union  Army.) 

Mr.  Secretary,  I  reckon  you'll  have  to  execute  the  order. 

(Stanton:     Mr.  President,  I  can  not  do  it.) 

Mr.  Secretary,  it  will  have  to  be  done. 

(The  order  is  executed.)* 

3rd.  (Proclamation.)  The  signal  success  that  divine 
Providence  has  recently  vouchsafed  to  the  operations  of  the 


*Date  conjectural. 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  429 

United  States  fleet  and  army  in  the  harbor  of  Mobile,  and  the 
reduction  of  Fort  Powell,  Fort  Gaines,  and  Fort  Morgan,  and 
the  glorious  achievements  of  the  army  under  Major-General 
Sherman,  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  resulting  in  the  capture  of 
the  city  of  Atlanta,  call  for  devout  acknowledgment  to  the 
Supreme  Being,  in  whose  hands  are  the  destinies  of  nations. 
It  is,  therefore,  requested  that  on  next  Sunday,  in  all  places  of 
worship  in  the  United  States,  thanksgiving  be  offered  to  Him 
for  His  mercy  in  preserving  our  national  existence  against  the 
insurgent  rebels  who  have  been  waging  a  cruel  war  against  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  for  its  overthrow ;  and  also 
that  prayer  be  made  for  Divine  protection  to  our  brave  soldiers 
and  their  leaders  in  the  field,  who  have  so  often  and  so  gallantly 
periled  their  lives  in  battling  with  the  enemy ;  and  for  blessings 
and  comfort  from  the  Father  of  Mercies  to  the  sick,  wounded, 
and  prisoners,  and  to  the  orphans  and  widows  of  those  who 
have  fallen  in  the  service  of  their  country,  and  that  He  will 
continue  to  uphold  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
against  all  the  efforts  of  public  enemies  and  secret  foes. 

4th.  (To  Mrs.  Eliza  P.  Gurney.)  I  have  not  forgotten, 
probably  never  shall  forget,  the  very  impressive  occasion  when 
yourself  and  friends  visited  me  on  a  Sabbath  forenoon,  two 
years  ago ;  nor  has  your  kind  letter,  written  nearly  a  year 
later,  ever  been  forgotten.  In  all  it  has  been  your  purpose  to 
strengthen  my  reliance  in  God.  I  am  much  indebted  to  the 
good  Christian  people  of  the  country  for  their  constant  prayers 
and  consolation,  and  to  no  one  of  them  more  than  to  yourself. 
The  purposes  of  the  Almighty  are  perfect,  and  must  prevail, 
though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  accurately  perceive  them 
in  advance.  We  hoped  for  a  happy  termination  of  this  ter- 
rible war  long  before  this,  but  God  knows  best,  and  has  ruled 
otherwise.  We  shall  yet  acknowledge  His  wisdom,  and  our 
own  error  therein.  Meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly  in 
the  best  lights  He  gives  us,  trusting  that  so  working  still  con- 


430  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

duces  to  the  great  ends  He  ordains.  Surely  He  intends  some 
great  good  to  follow  this  mighty  convulsion,  which  no  mortal 
could  make,  and  no  mortal  could  stay. 

Your  people — the  Friends — have  had,  and  are  having,  very 
great  trials.  On  principle  and  faith  opposed  to  both  war  and 
oppression,  they  can  only  practically  oppose  oppression  by  war. 
In  this  hard  dilemma  some  have  chosen  one  horn  and  some 
the  other.  For  those  appealing  to  me  on  conscientious  grounds, 
I  have  done,  and  shall  do,  the  best  I  could  and  can,  in  my  own 
conscience,  under  my  oath  to  the  law.  That  you  believe  this, 
I  doubt  not,  and,  believing  it,  I  shall  still  receive  for  our  coun- 
try and  myself  your  earnest  prayers  to  our  Father  in  Heaven. 

8th.  (To  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  All  well,  including  Tad's  pony 
and  the  goats.  Mrs.  Colonel  Dimmick  died  night  before  last. 
Bob  left  Sunday  afternoon.  Said  he  did  not  know  whether 
he  should  see  you. 

1 2th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Sheridan  and  Early  are 
facing  each  other  at  a  dead-lock.  Could  we  not  pick  up  a  regi- 
ment here  and  there,  to  the  number  of,  say  ten  thousand  men, 
and  quietly  but  suddenly  concentrate  them  at  Sheridan's  camp 
and  enable  him  to  make  a  strike?     This  is  but  a  suggestion. 

ipth.  (To  General  W.  T.  Sherman.)  The  State  election 
of  Indiana  occurs  on  the  nth  of  October,  and  the  loss  of  it, 
to  the  friends  of  the  Government,  would  go  far  toward  losing 
the  whole  Union  cause.  The  bad  effect  upon  the  November 
election,  and  especially  the  giving  the  State  government  to 
those  who  will  oppose  the  war  in  every  possible  way,  are  too 
much  to  risk,  if  it  can  possibly  be  avoided.  The  draft  proceeds, 
notwithstanding  its  strong  tendency  to  lose  us  the  State.  Indi- 
ana is  the  only  important  State,  voting  in  October,  whose  sol- 
diers can  not  vote  in  the  field.  Anything  you  can  safely  do  to 
let  her  soldiers,  or  any  part  of  them,  go  home  and  vote  at  the 
State  election  will  be  greatly  in  point.  They  need  not  remain 
for  the  Presidential  election,  but  may  return  to  you  at  once. 


age  55]  'AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  431 

This  is  in  no  sense  an  order,  but  is  merely  intended  to  impress 
you  with  the  importance,  to  the  army  itself,  of  your  doing 
all  you  safely  can,  yourself  being  the  judge  of  what  you  can 
safely  do. 

(To  J.  S.  Ten  Eyck.)  Doctor  J.  R.  Freese,  now  editor  of 
a  leading  Union  journal  in  New  Jersey,  resided  for  a  time  in 
Illinois,  where  and  when  I  made  his  acquaintance,  and  since 
when  I  have  enjoyed  much  of  his  friendship.  He  is  some- 
what wounded  with  me  now,  that  I  do  not  recognize  him  as 
he  thinks  I  ought.  I  wish  to  appoint  him  a  provost-marshal  in 
your  State.    May  I  have  your  approval  ? 

20th.  (To  Sheridan.)  Have  just  heard  of  your  great  vic- 
tory. God  bless  you  all,  officers  and  men.  Strongly  inclined 
to  come  up  and  see  you. 

2 1  st.  (To  General  E.  R.  S.  Canby.)  General  Baily  of 
Rapides  Parish,  Louisiana,  is  vouched  to  me  as  entirely  trust- 
worthy, and  appeals  to  me  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  his 
region,  who  he  says  are  mostly  Union  people,  and  are  in  great 
destitution — almost  absolute  starvation.  He  says  their  condi- 
tion is  greatly  aggravated  by  General  Banks'  expedition  up 
Red  River,  last  spring,  in  reliance  upon  which  they  mostly 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance. 

Of  course  what  General  Baily  asks  is  permission  to  carry 
provisions  to  them. 

This  I  will  not  give  without  your  consent,  but  I  will  thank 
you  to  hear  and  consider  their  case,  and  do  for  them  the  best 
you  can,  consistently  with  the  interests  of  the  public  service. 

22nd.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  I  send  this  as  an  ex- 
planation to  you,  and  to  do  justice  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 
I  was  induced,  upon  pressing  application,  to  authorize  the 
agents  of  one  of  the  districts  of  Pennsylvania  to  recruit  in  one 
of  the  prison  depots  in  Illinois,  and  the  thing  went  so  far  be- 
fore it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Secretary  that,  in  my 
judgment,  it  could  not  be  abandoned  without  greater  evil  than 


432  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

would  follow  its  going  through.  I  did  not  know  at  the  time 
that  you  had  protested  against  that  class  of  thing  being  done; 
and  I  now  say  that  while  this  particular  job  must  be  completed, 
no  other  of  the  sort  will  be  authorized  without  an  understand- 
ing with  you,  if  at  all.  The  Secretary  of  War  is  wholly 
free  of  any  part  in  this  blunder. 

23rd.  (To  Postmaster-General  Blair.)  You  have  gener- 
ously said  to  me,  more  than  once,  that  whenever  your  resig- 
nation could  be  a  relief  to  me,  it  was  at  my  disposal.  The 
time  has  come.  You  very  well  know  that  this  proceeds  from 
no  dissatisfaction  of  mine  with  you  personally  or  officially. 
Your  uniform  kindness  has  been  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any 
friend,  and  while  it  is  true  that  the  war  does  not  so  greatly  add 
to  the  difficulties  of  your  department  as  to  those  of  some 
others,  it  is  yet  much  to  say,  as  I  most  truly  can,  that  in  the 
three  years  and  a  half  during  which  you  have  administered 
the  general  postof fice,  I  remember  no  single  complaint  against 
you  in  connection  therewith. 

24th.  Congress  having  authorized  the  purchase  for  the 
United  States  of  the  products  of  States  declared  in  insurrec- 
tion, and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  having  designated  New 
Orleans,  Memphis,  Nashville,  Pensacola,  Port  Royal,  Beaufort, 
(North  Carolina),  and  Norfolk,  as  places  of  purchase,  and 
with  my  approval  appointed  agents  and  made  regulations  under 
which  said  products  may  be  purchased,  therefore : 

All  persons  except  such  as  may  be  in  the  civil,  military, 
or  naval  service  of  the  government,  having  in  their  possession 
any  products  of  States  or  part  of  States  declared  in  insurrec- 
tion, which  said  agents  are  authorized  to  purchase,  and  all 
persons  owning  or  controlling  such  products  therein  are  author- 
ized to  convey  such  products  to  either  of  the  places  which  have 
been  hereby  or  may  hereafter  be  designated  as  places  of  pur- 
chase, and  such  products  so  destined  shall  not  be  liable  to 
detention,  seizure,  or  forfeiture  while  in  transitu,  or  in  store 
waiting  transportation. 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  433 

(To  William  Dennison.)  Mr.  Blair  has  resigned  and  T 
appoint  you  Postmaster-General.     Come  on  immediately. 

29th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  I  hope  it  will  have  no 
constraint  on  you,  nor  do  harm  any  way,  for  me  to  say  I  am  a 
little  afraid  lest  Lee  sends  reinforcements  to  Early,  and  thus 
enables  him  to  turn  upon  Sheridan. 

October  ipth.  (Response  to  a  Serenade.)'  Something 
said  by  the  Secretary  of  State  in  his  recent  speech  at  Auburn, 
has  been  construed  by  some  into  a  threat  that  if  I  shall  be 
beaten  at  the  election  I  will,  between  then  and  the  end  of  my 
constitutional  term,  do  what  I  may  be  able  to  ruin  the  govern- 
ment. 

Others  regard  the  fact  that  the  Chicago  Convention  ad- 
journed, not  sine  die,  but  to  meet  again,  if  called  to  do  so  by  a 
particular  individual,  as  the  intimation  of  a  purpose  that  if 
their  nominee  shall  be  elected  he  will  at  once  seize  control  of 
the  Government.  I  hope  the  good  people  will  permit  themselves 
to  suffer  no  uneasiness  on  either  point.  I  am  struggling  to 
maintain  the  Government,  not  to  overthrow  it.  I  am  strug- 
gling especially  to  prevent  others  from  overthrowing  it.  I 
therefore  say  that  if  I  shall  live,  I  shall  remain  President  until 
the  4th  of  next  March,  and  that  whoever  shall  be  constitu- 
tionally elected  in  November  shall  be  duly  installed  as  Presi- 
dent on  the  4th  of  March,  and  that  in  the  interval  I  shall  do 
my  utmost  that  whoever  is  to  hold  the  helm  for  the  next  voy- 
age shall  start  with  the  best  possible  chance  of  saving  the  ship. 

20th.  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  prolong  our  national 
life  another  year,  defending  us  with  His  guardian  care  against 
unfriendly  designs  from  abroad,  and  vouchsafing  to  us  in  His 
mercy  many  and  signal  victories  over  the  enemy,  who  is  of  our 
own  household.  It  has  also  pleased  our  Heavenly  Father  to 
favor  as  well  our  citizens  in  their  homes  as  our  soldiers  in  their 
camps,  and  our  sailors  on  the  rivers  and  seas,  with  unusual 
health.     He  has  largely  augmented  our  free  population  by 


434  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

emancipation  and  by  immigration,  while  He  has  opened  to  us 
new  sources  of  wealth,  and  has  crowned  the  labor  of  our 
workingmen  in  every  department  of  industry  with  abundant 
rewards.  Moreover,  He  has  been  pleased  to  animate  and  in- 
spire our  minds  and  hearts  with  fortitude,  courage,  and  reso- 
lution sufficient  for  the  great  trial  of  civil  war  into  which  we 
have  been  brought  by  our  adherence  as  a  nation  to  the  cause 
of  freedom  and  humanity,  and  to  afford  to  us  reasonable  hopes 
of  an  intimate  and  happy  deliverance  from  all  our  dangers  and 
afflictions. 

Second  election  as  President. 

November  8th.  It  is  a  little  singular  that  I,  who  am  not  a 
vindictive  man,  should  always  have  been  before  the  people  for 
elections  marked  for  their  bitterness — always  but  once.  When 
I  came  to  Congress  it  was  a  quiet  time.  But  always  besides 
that  the  contests  in  which  I  have  been  present  have  been 
marked  by  great  rancor. 

pth.  (Response  to  a  Serenade.)  I  earnestly  believe  that 
the  consequences  of  this  day's  work,  if  it  be  as  you  assure  me, 
and  as  now  seems  probable,  will  be  to  the  lasting  advantage,  if 
not  to  the  very  salvation,  of  the  country.  I  can  not  at  this  hour 
say  what  has  been  the  result  of  the  election;  but  whatever  it 
may  be,  I  have  no  desire  to  modify  this  opinion, 
that  all  who  have  labored  to-day  in  behalf  of  the  Union  have 
wrought  for  the  best  interests  of  the  country  and  the  world, 
not  only  for  the  present,  but  for  all  future  ages.  I  am  thankful 
to  God  for  this  approval  of  the  people.  But,  while  deeply  grate- 
ful for  this  mark  of  their  confidence  in  me,  if  I  know  my  heart, 
my  gratitude  is  free  from  any  taint  of  personal  triumph.  I  do 
not  impugn  the  motives  of  any  one  opposed  to  me.  It  is  no 
pleasure  to  me  to  triumph  over  any  one,  but  I  give  thanks  to 
the  Almighty  for  this  evidence  of  the  people's  resolution  to 
stand  by  free  government  and  the  rights  of  humanity. 


age  S5]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  435 

10th.  (Speaking  of  the  reply  to  Serenade.)  Not  very 
graceful,  but  I  am  growing  old  enough  not  to  care  much  for 
the  manner  of  doing  things. 

It  has  long  been  a  grave  question  whether  any  government, 
not  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  people,  can  be  strong 
enough  to  maintain  its  existence  in  great  emergencies.  On 
this  point  the  present  rebellion  brought  our  Government  to  a 
severe  test,  and  a  Presidential  election  occurring  in  regular 
course  during  the  rebellion,  added  not  a  little  to  the  strain. 

If  the  loyal  people  united  were  put  to  the  utmost  of  their 
strength  by  the  rebellion,  must  they  not  fail  when  divided  and 
partially  paralyzed  by  a  political  war  among  themselves  ?  But 
the  election  was  a  necessity.  We  can  not  have  free  govern- 
ment without  elections;  and  if  the  rebellion  could  force  us  to 
forego  or  postpone  a  national  election,  it  might  fairly  claim  to 
have  already  conquered  and  ruined  us.  The  strife  of  the 
election  is  but  human  nature  practically  applied  to  the  facts  of 
the  case.  What  has  occurred  in  this  case  must  ever  recur  in 
similar  cases.  Human  nature  will  not  change.  In  any  future 
great  national  trial,  compared  with  the  men  of  this,  we  shall 
have  as  weak  and  as  strong,  as  silly  and  as  wise,  as  bad  and 
as  good.  Let  us,  therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this  as 
philosophy  to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as  wrongs 
to  be  revenged. 

But  the  election,  along  with  its  incidental  and  undesirable 
strife,  has  done  good,  too.  It  has  demonstrated  that  a  people's 
government  can  sustain  a  national  election  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  civil  war.  Until  now  it  has  not  been  known  to  the  world 
that  this  was  a  possibility. 

But  the  rebellion  continues,  and  now  that  the  election  is 
over,  may  not  all  having  a  common  interest  reunite  in  a  com- 
mon effort  to  save  our  common  country?  For  my  own  part, 
I  have  striven  and  shall  strive  to  avoid  placing  any  obstacle  in 
the  way.     So  long  as  I  have  been  here  I  have  not  willingly 


436  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

planted  a  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am  deeply  sen- 
sible to  the  high  compliment  of  a  reelection,  and  duly  grateful, 
as  I  trust,  to  Almighty  God  for  having  directed  my  countrymen 
to  a  right  conclusion,  as  I  think,  for  their  good,  it  adds  nothing 
to  my  satisfaction  that  any  other  man  may  be  disappointed 
by  the  result. 

nth.  (At  a  Cabinet  Meeting.)  Gentlemen,  do  you  re- 
member last  summer  I  asked  you  to  sign  your  names  on  the 
back  of  a  paper  of  which  I  did  not  show  you  the  inside?  This 
is  it.  Now,  Mr.  Hay,  see  if  you  can  get  this  open  without  tear- 
ing it. 

(Hay  opens  it  and  produces  the  memorandum  of  August 
22nd.*) 

You  will  remember  that  this  was  written  at  a  time,  six 
days  before  the  Chicago  nominating  convention,  when  as  yet 
we  had  no  adversary,  and  seemed  to  have  no  friends.  I  then 
solemnly  resolved  on  the  course  of  action  indicated  above.  I 
resolved  in  case  of  the  election  of  General  McClellan,  being- 
certain  that  he  would  be  the  candidate,  that  I  would  see  him 
and  talk  matters  over  with  him.  I  would  say,  "General,  the 
election  has  demonstrated  that  you  are  stronger,  have  more 
influence  with  the  American  people  than  I.  Now  let  us  get 
together,  you  with  your  influence,  and  I  with  all  the  executive 
power  of  the  government,  and  try  to  save  the  country.  You 
raise  as  many  troops  as  you  possibly  can  for  this  final  trial,  and 
I  will  devote  all  my  energy  to  assisting  and  pushing  the  war." 

(Stanton:  And  the  general  would  answer  you,  "Yes,  yes," 
and  the  next  day  when  you  saw  him  again  and  pressed  these 
views  upon  him  he  would  say  "Yes,  yes,"  and  so  on  forever; 
and  would  have  done  nothing  at  all.) 

At  least,  I  should  have  done  my  duty,  and  have  stood  clear 
before  my  own  conscience. 

14th.     Few  things  since  I  have  been  here  have  impressed 


*See  p.  427t 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  437 

me  more  painfully  than  what,  for  four  or  five  months  past, 
has  appeared  a  bitter  military  opposition  to  the  new  State  gov- 
ernment of  Louisiana.  Of  course,  in  the  condition  of  things 
in  New  Orleans,  the  military  must  not  be  thwarted  by  the  civil 
authority;  but  when  the  Constitutional  Convention,  for  what 
it  deems  a  breech  of  privilege  arrests  an  editor,  in  no  way  con- 
nected with  the  military,  the  military  necessity  for  insulting  the 
Convention  and  forcibly  discharging  the  editor,  is  difficult  to 
perceive.  Neither  is  the  military  necessity  for  protecting  the 
people  against  paying  large  salaries,  fixed  by  a  legislature  of 
their  own  choosing,  very  apparent.  Equally  difficult  to  per- 
ceive is  the  military  necessity  for  forcibly  interposing  to  pre- 
vent a  bank  from  loaning  its  own  money  to  the  State.  These 
things,  if  they  have  occurred,  are,  at  the  best,  no  better  than 
gratuitous  hostility.  I  wish  I  could  hope  that  they  may  be 
shown  to  not  have  occurred.  To  make  assurance  against  mis- 
understanding, I  repeat  that  in  the  existing  condition  of  things 
in  Louisiana,  the  military  must  not  be  thwarted  by  the  civil 
authority;  and  I  add  that  on  points  of  difference  the  com- 
manding general  must  be  judge  and  master.  But  I  also  add 
that  in  the  exercise  of  this  judgment  and  control,  a  purpose, 
obvious,  and  scarcely  unavowed,  to  transcend  all  military 
necessity,  in  order  to  crush  out  the  civil  government,  will  not 
be  overlooked. 

2 1  st.  (To  Mrs.  Bixby.)  I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of 
the  War  Department  a  statement  of  the  Adjutant-General  of 
Massachusetts  that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have 
died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and 
fruitless  must  be  any  words  of  mine  which  should  attempt  to 
beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  overwhelming.  But 
I  can  not  refrain  from  tendering  to  you  the  consolation  that 
may  be  found  in  the  thanks  of  the  Republic  they  died  to  save. 
I  pray  that  our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the  anguish  of 
your  bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the  cherished  memory  of 


438  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1864 

the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to 
have  laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom.* 

(To  John  Philips.)  I  have  heard  of  the  incident  at  the 
polls  in  your  town,  in  which  you  acted  so  honorable  a  part,  and 
I  take  the  liberty  of  writing  to  you  to  express  my  personal 
gratitude  for  the  compliment  paid  me  by  the  suffrage  of  a  citi- 
zen so  venerable. 

The  example  of  such  devotion  to  civic  duties  in  one  whose 
days  have  already  been  extended  an  average  lifetime  beyond 
the  Psalmist's  limit,  can  not  but  be  valuable  and  fruitful.  It 
is  not  for  myself  only,  but  for  the  country  which  you  have  in 
your  sphere  served  so  long  and  so  well,  that  I  thank  you. 

December  3rd.  (On  Thursday  of  last  week,  two  ladies 
from  Tennessee  came  before  the  President  asking  the  release 
of  their  husbands  held  as  prisoners  of  war  at  Johnson's  Island. 
They  were  put  off  until  Friday  when  they  came  again;  and 
were  again  put  off  until  Saturday.  At  each  of  the  interviews 
one  of  the  ladies  urged  that  her  husband  was  a  religious  man. 
On  Saturday  the  President  ordered  the  release  of  the  prisoners, 
when  he  said  to  this  lady,)  You  say  your  husband  is  a  re- 
ligious man ;  tell  him  when  you  meet  him,  that  I  say  I  am  not 
much  of  a  judge  of  religion ;  but  that,  in  my  opinion,  the 
religion  that  sets  men  to  rebel  and  fight  against  their  govern- 
ment, because,  as  they  think,  that  government  does  not  suffi- 
ciently help  some  men  to  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  other 
men's  faces,  is  not  the  sort  of  religion  upon  which  people  can 
get  to  heaven. 

6th.  The  public  purpose  to  reestablish  and  maintain  the 
national  authority  is  unchanged,  and,  as  we  believe,  unchange- 
able. The  manner  of  continuing  the  effort  remains  to  choose. 
On  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evidence  accessible,  it  seems 


*With  regard  to  this  letter  there  is  a  curious  confusion.  The  files  of 
the  War  Department  do  not  corroborate  its  facts.  Its  authenticity  has  been 
challenged.  It  was  included  in  the  collection  of  Nicholay  and  Hay,  who 
ardently  believed  it  genuine. 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  439 

to  me  that  no  attempt  at  negotiation  with  the  insurgent  leader 
could  result  in  any  good.  He  would  accept  nothing  short  of 
severance  of  the  Union — precisely  what  we  will  not  and  can  not 
give.  His  declarations  to  this  effect  are  explicit  and  oft  re- 
peated. He  does  not  attempt  to  deceive  us.  He  affords  us  no 
excuse  to  deceive  ourselves.  He  can  not  voluntarily  reaccept 
the  Union ;  we  can  not  voluntarily  yield  it.  Between  him  and 
us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and  inflexible.  It  is  an  issue 
which  can  only  be  tried  by  war,  and  decided  by  victory.  If  we 
yield  we  are  beaten;  if  the  Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is 
beaten.  Either  way  it  would  be  a  victory  and  defeat  following 
war.  What  is  true,  however,  of  him  who  heads  the  insurgent 
cause,  is  not  necessarily  true  of  those  who  follow.  Although 
he  can  not  reaccept  the  Union,  they  can.  Some  of  them,  we 
know,  already  desire  peace  and  reunion.  The  number  of  such 
may  increase.  They  can  at  any  moment  have  peace  simply  by 
laying  down  their  arms  and  submitting  to  the  national  author- 
ity under  the  Constitution.  After  so  much  the  government 
could  not,  if  it  would,  maintain  war  against  them.  The  loyal 
people  would  not  sustain  or  allow  it.  If  questions  should  re- 
main, we  would  adjust  them  by  the  peaceful  means  of  legis- 
lation, conference,  courts,  and  votes,  operating  only  in 
constitutional  and  lawful  channels.  Some  certain,  and  other 
possible,  questions  are,  and  would  be,  beyond  the  executive 
power  to  adjust — as,  for  instance,  the  admission  of  members 
into  Congress,  and  whatever  might  require  the  appropriation 
of  money.  The  executive  power  itself  would  be  greatly  dimin- 
ished by  the  cessation  of  actual  war.  Pardons  and  remissions 
of  forfeitures,  however,  would  still  be  within  executive  con- 
trol. In  what  spirit  and  temper  this  control  would  be  exercised, 
can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  the  past. 

(To  a  close  personal  friend  of  Chase.)  I  have  something 
to  tell  you  that  will  make  you  happy.  I  have  just  sent  Mr. 
Chase  word  that  he  is  to  be  appointed  Chief -Justice,  and  you 
are  the  first  man  I  have  told  of  it. 


440  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

(Mr.  President,  this  is  an  exhibition  of  magnanimity  and 
patriotism  that  could  hardly  be  expected  of  any  one.  After 
what  he  has  said  against  your  administration,  which  has  un- 
doubtedly been  reported  to  you,  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  you  would  bestow  the  most  important  office  within  your 
gift  on  such  a  man.) 

Although  I  may  have  appeared  to  you  and  to  Mr.  Sumner 
to  have  been  opposed  to  Chase's  appointment,  there  never  has 
been  a  moment  since  the  breath  left  old  Taney's  body  that  I 
did  not  conceive  it  to  be  the  best  thing  to  do  to  appoint  Mr. 
Chase  to  that  high  office;  and  to  have  done  otherwise  I  should 
have  been  recreant  to  my  convictions  of  duty  to  the  Republican 
party  and  to  the  country. 

As  to  his  talk  about  me,  I  do  not  mind  that.  Chase  is,  on 
the  whole,  a  pretty  good  fellow  and  a  very  able  man.  His 
only  trouble  is  that  he  has  "the  White  House  fever"  a  little 
too  bad,  but  I  hope  this  may  cure  him  and  that  he  will  be 
satisfied. 

(Response  to  a  Serenade.)  I  believe  I  shall  never  be 
old  enough  to  speak  without  embarrassment  when  I  have 
nothing  to  talk  about.  I  have  no  good  news  to  tell  you,  and 
yet  I  have  no  bad  news  to  tell.  We  have  talked  of  elections 
until  there  is  nothing  more  to  say  about  them.  The  most  inter- 
esting news  we  now  have  is  from  Sherman.  We  all  know 
where  he  went  in,  but  I  can't  tell  where  he  will  come  out.  I 
will  now  close  by  proposing  three  cheers  for  General  Sherman 
and  his  army. 

12th.  As  to  cotton.  By  the  external  blockade,  the  price 
is  made  certainly  six  times  as  great  as  it  was.  And  yet  the 
enemy  gets  through  at  least  one-sixth  part  as  much  in  a  given 
period,  say  a  year,  as  if  there  were  no  blockade,  and  receives 
as  much  for  it  as  he  would  for  a  full  crop  in  time  of  peace. 
The  effect,  in  substance,  is,  that  we  give  him  six  ordinary  crops 
without  the  trouble  of  producing  any  but  the  first;  and  at  the 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  441 

same  time  leave  his  fields  and  his  laborers  free  to  produce  pro- 
visions. You  know  how  this  keeps  up  his  armies  at  home  and 
procures  supplies  from  abroad.  For  other  reasons  we  can  not 
give  up  the  blockade,  and  hence  it  becomes  immensely  impor- 
tant to  us  to  get  the  cotton  away  from  him.  Better  give  him 
guns  for  it  than  let  him,  as  now,  get  both  guns  and  ammunition 
for  it.  But  even  this  only  presents  part  of  the  public  interest 
to  get  out  cotton.  Our  finances  are  greatly  involved  in  the 
matter.  The  way  cotton  goes  now  carries  so  much  gold  out  of 
the  country  as  to  leave  us  paper  currency  only,  and  that  so  far 
depreciated  as  that  for  every  hard  dollar's  worth  of  supplies  we 
obtain,  we  contract  to  pay  two  and  a  half  hard  dollars  here- 
after. This  is  much  to  be  regretted;  and,  while  I  believe  we 
can  live  through  it,  at  all  events  it  demands  an  earnest  effort 
on  the  part  of  all  to  correct  it.  And  if  pecuniary  greed  can  be 
made  to  aid  us  in  such  effort,  let  us  be  thankful  that  so  much 
good  can  be  got  out  of  pecuniary  greed. 

26th.  (To  General  W.  T.  Sherman.)  Many,  many  thanks 
for  your  Christmas  gift,  the  capture  of  Savannah.  When  you 
were  about  leaving  Atlanta  for  the  Atlantic  coast,  I  was  anx- 
ious, if  not  fearful;  but  feeling  that  you  were  the  better  judge, 
and  remembering  that  "nothing  risked,  nothing  gained, "  I  did 
not  interfere.  Now,  the  undertaking  being  a  success,  the  honor 
is  all  yours,  for  I  believe  none  of  us  went  further  than  to  ac- 
quiesce. And  taking  the  work  of  General  Thomas  into  the 
count,  as  it  should  be  taken,  it  is  indeed  a  great  success.  Not 
only  does  it  afford  the  obvious  and  immediate  military  ad- 
vantages; but  in  showing  to  the  world  that  your  army  could 
be  divided,  putting  the  stronger  part  to  an  important  new 
service,  and  yet  leaving  enough  to  vanquish  the  old  opposing 
force  of  the  whole — Hood's  army — it  brings  those  who  sat  in 
darkness  to  see  a  great  light.  But  what  next?  I  suppose  it 
will  be  safe  if  I  leave  General  Grant  and  yourself  to  decide. 

Please  make  my  grateful  acknowledgments  to  your  whole 
army,  officers  and  men. 


442  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1864 

27th.  (To  Doctor  John  Maclean.)  I  have  the  honor  to 
acknowledge  the  reception  of  your  note  of  the  20th  of  Decem- 
ber, conveying  the  announcement  that  the  trustees  of  the  Col- 
lege of  New  Jersey  had  conferred  upon  me  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Laws. 

The  assurance  conveyed  by  this  high  compliment  that  the 
course  of  the  Government  which  I  represent  has  received  the 
approval  of  a  body  of  gentlemen  of  such  character  and  intelli- 
gence, in  this  time  of  public  trial  is  most  grateful  to  me. 

Thoughtful  men  must  feel  that  the  fate  of  civilization  upon 
this  continent  is  involved  in  the  issue  of  our  contest.  Among 
the  most  gratifying  proofs  of  this  conviction  is  the  hearty  de- 
votion everywhere  exhibited  by  our  schools  and  colleges  to  the 
national  cause. 

I  am  most  thankful  if  my  labors  have  seemed  to  conduct 
to  the  preservation  of  those  institutions  under  which  alone  we 
can  expect  good  government,  and  in  its  train,  sound  learning, 
and  the  progress  of  the  liberal  arts. 

30th.  (To  Colonel  A.  J.  Warner.)  It  is  said  that  you 
were  on  the  court-martial  that  tried  John  Lennon,  and  that 
you  are  disposed  to  advise  his  being  pardoned  and  sent  to  his 
regiment.    If  this  be  true,  telegraph  me  to  that  effect  at  once. 

T  have  never  united  myself  to  any  church,  because  I  have 
found  difficulty  in  giving  my  assent,  without  mental  reserva- 
tions, to  the  long,  complicated  statement  of  Christian  doctrine 
which  characterize  their  Articles  of  Belief  and  Confessions  of 
Faith.  When  any  church  will  inscribe  over  its  altar,  as  its  sole 
qualification  for  membership,  the  Saviour's  condensed  state- 
ment of  both  Law  and  Gospel,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy 
mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  that  church  will  I  join 
with  all  my  heart  and  all  my  soul.* 


^Date  approximate. 


1865 

January  18th.  (To  F.  P.  Blair,  Sr.)  You  having  shown 
me  Mr.  Davis'  letter  to  you  of  the  12th  instant,  you  may  say  to 
him  that  I  have  constantly  been,  am  now,  and  shall  continue, 
ready  to  receive  any  agent  whom  he,  or  any  other  influential 
person  now  resisting  the  national  authority  may  informally 
send  to  me  with  the  view  of  securing  peace  to  the  people  of  our 
one  common  country. 

(To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Please  read  and  answer  this 
letter  as  though  I  was  not  President,  but  only  a  friend.  My 
son,  now  in  his  twenty-second  year,  having  graduated  at 
Harvard,  wishes  to  see  something  of  the  war  before  it  ends. 
I  do  not  wish  to  put  him  in  the  ranks,  nor  yet  to  give  him  a 
commission,  to  which  those  who  have  already  served  long  are 
better  entitled  and  better  qualified  to  hold.  Could  he,  without 
embarrassment  to  you  or  detriment  to  the  service,  go  into  your 
military  family  with  some  nominal  rank,  I,  and  not  the  public, 
furnishing  his  necessary  means?  If  no,  say  so  without  the 
least  hesitation,  because  I  am  as  anxious  and  as  deeply  inter- 
ested that  you  shall  not  be  encumbered  as  you  can  be  yourself. 

28th.  To-day  Mr.  Blair  tells  me  that  on  the  21st  instant 
he  delivered  to  Mr.  Davis  the  original,  of  which  the  within 
[letter  to  Blair  of  January  18th]  is  a  copy,  and  left  it  with 
him;  that  at  the  time  of  delivering  it  Mr.  Davis  read  it  over 
twice  in  Mr.  Blair's  presence,  at  the  close  of  which  he  (Mr. 
Blair)  remarked  that  the  part  about  "our  one  common  country" 
related  to  the  part  of  Mr.  Davis'  letter  about  "the  two  coun- 
tries," to  which  Mr.  Davis  replied  that  he  so  understood  it. 

443 


444  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

30th.  (To  Major  T.  T.  Eckert.)  You  will  proceed  with 
the  documents  placed  in  your  hands,  and  on  reaching  General 
Ord  will  deliver  him  the  letter  addressed  to  him  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  War;  then,  by  General  Ord's  assistance,  procure  an 
interview  with  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  or  any 
of  them.  Deliver  to  him  or  them  the  paper  on  which  your  own 
letter  is  written.  Note  on  the  copy  which  you  retain  the  time 
of  delivery  and  to  whom  delivered.  Receive  their  answer  in 
writing,  waiting  a  reasonable  time  for  it,  and  which,  if  it  con- 
tain their  decision  to  come  through  without  further  condition, 
will  be  your  warrant  to  ask  General  Ord  to  pass  them  through 
as  directed  in  the  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  War  to  him.  If, 
by  their  answer  they  decline  to  come,  or  propose  other  terms, 
do  not  have  them  pass  through.  And  this  being  your  whole 
duty,  return  and  report  to  me. 

(To  Lieutenant-General  Grant.)  The  President  desires 
that  you  will  please  procure  for  the  bearer,  Major  Thomas  T. 
Eckert,  an  interview  with  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter,  and 
Campbell,  and  if,  on  his  return  to  you,  he  request  it,  pass  them 
through  our  lines  to  Fortress  Monroe,  by  such  route  and  under 
such  military  precautions  as  you  may  deem  prudent,  giving 
them  protection  and  comfortable  quarters  while  there,  and  that 
you  let  none  of  this  have  any  effect  upon  your  movements  or 
plans. 

(To  Secretary  Seward.)  You  will  proceed  to  Fortress 
Monroe,  Va.,  there  to  meet  and  informally  confer  with  Messrs. 
Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  on  the  basis  of  my  letter  to 
F.  P.  Blair,  Esq.,  on  January  18,  1865,  a  copy  of  which  you 
have. 

You  will  make  known  to  them  that  three  things  are  in- 
dispensable, fo-wit : 

1st  The  restoration  of  the  national  authority  throughout 
all  the  States. 

2nd.     No  receding  by  the  Executive  of  the  United  States 


age  55]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  445 

on  the  slavery  question  from  the  position  assumed  thereon  in 
the  late  annual  message  to  Congress  and  in  preceding  docu- 
ments. 

3rd.  No  cessation  of  hostilities  short  of  an  end  of  the 
war  and  the  disbanding  of  all  forces  hostile  to  the  Government. 

You  will  inform  them  that'  all  propositions  of  theirs,  not 
inconsistent  with  the  above,  will  be  considered  and  passed 
upon  in  a  spirit  of  sincere  liberality.  You  will  hear  all  they 
may  choose  to  say  and  report  it  to  me. 

You  will  not  assume  to  definitely  consummate  anything. 

February  1st.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Let  nothing 
which  is  transpiring  change,  hinder,  or  delay  your  military 
movements  or  plans. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  has  just  signed  the  res- 
olution of  Congress,  submitting  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  sev- 
eral States  a  proposition  to  amend  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

2nd.  (To  Secretary  Seward.)  Induced  by  a  despatch 
from  General  Grant,  I  join  you  at  Fort  Monroe  as  soon  as  I 
can  come. 

3rd.  On  the  night  of  the  2nd  I  reached  Hampton  Roads, 
found  the  Secretary  of  State  and  Major  Eckert  on  a  steamer 
anchored  offshore,  and  learned  of  them  that  the  Richmond 
gentlemen  were  on  another  steamer  also  anchored  offshore,  in 
the  Roads;  and  that  the  Secretary  of  State  had  not  yet  seen  or 
communicated  with  them. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3rd  the  three  gentlemen — Messrs. 
Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell — came  aboard  of  our  steamer, 
and  had  an  interview  with  the  Secretary  of  State  and  myself, 
of  several  hours'  duration.  No  question  of  preliminaries  to 
the  meeting  was  then  and  there  made  or  mentioned.  No  other 
person  was  present;  no  papers  were  exchanged  or  produced; 
and  it  was,  in  advance,  agreed  that  the  conversation  was  to  be 
informal  and  verbal  merely.    On  our  part  the  whole  substance 


446  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

of  the  instructions  to  the  Secretary  of  State  was  stated  and 
insisted  upon,  and  nothing  was  said  inconsistent  therewith; 
while,  by  the  other  party,  it  was  not  said  that  in  any  event  or 
on  any  condition,  they  ever  would  consent  to  reunion,  and  yet 
they  equally  omitted  to  declare  they  never  would  so  consent. 
They  seemed  to  desire  a  postponement  of  that  question,  and 
the  adoption  of  some  other  course  first,  which,  as  some  of 
them  seemed  to  argue,  might  or  might  not  lead  to  reunion,  but 
which  course,  we  thought,  would  amount  to  an  indefinite  post- 
ponement.    The  conference  ended  without  result. 

(To  Mr.  Hunter,  in  the  conference  of  February  3rd,  reply- 
ing to  remarks  on  the  constitutional  relations  of  Charles  I  and 
the  parliamentary  army.)  Upon  questions  of  history  I  must 
refer  you  to  Mr.  Seward,  for  he  is  posted  in  such  things,  and 
I  don't  pretend  to  be  right.  My  only  distinct  recollection  of 
the  matter  is  that  Charles  lost  his  head. 

(Hunter  makes  the  point  that  the  entire  Southern  Society, 
without  compulsory  slave  labor,  would  be  irremediably  ruined.) 

I  waited  for  Seward  to  answer  that  argument,  but  as  he 
was  silent,  I  at  length  said:  "Mr.  Hunter,  you  ought  to  know 
a  great  deal  better  about  this  argument  than  I,  for  you  have 
always  lived  under  the  slave  system.  I  can  only  say,  in  reply 
to  your  statement  of  the  case,  that  it  reminds  me  of  a  man  out 
in  Illinois,  by  the  name  of  Case,  who  undertook,  a  few  years 
ago,  to  raise  a  very  large  herd  of  hogs.  It  was  a  great  trouble 
to  feed  them,  and  how  to  get  around  this  was  a  puzzle  to  him. 
At  length  he  hit  on  the  plan  of  planting  an  immense  field  of 
potatoes,  and,  when  they  were  sufficiently  grown,  he  turned 
the  whole  herd  into  the  field,  and  let  them  have  full  swing,  thus 
saving  not  only  the  labor  of  feeding  the  hogs,  but  also  that  of 
digging  the  potatoes.  Charmed  with  his  sagacity,  he  stood 
one  day  leaning  against  the  fence,  counting  his  hogs,  when  a 
neighbor  came  along. 

"Well,  well,"  said  he,  "Mr.  Case,  this  is  all  very  fine.  Your 


age  55]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  447 

hogs  are  doing  very  well  just  now,  but  you  know  out  here  in 
Illinois  the  frost  comes  early,  and  the  ground  freezes  for  a 
foot  deep.    Then  what  you  going  to  do?" 

This  was  a  view  of  the  matter  which  Mr.  Case  had  not 
taken  into  account.  Butchering  time  for  hogs  was  'way  on  in 
December  or  January !  He  scratched  his  head,  and  at  length 
stammered :  '"Well,  it  may  come  pretty  hard  on  their  snouts, 
but  I  don't  see  but  that  it  will  be  root,  hog,  or  die." 

4th.  (To  the  officer  in  command  at  Johnson's  Island, 
Ohio.)  Parole  Lieutenant  John  A.  Stephens,  prisoner  of  war, 
to  report  to  me  here  in  person,  and  send  him  to  me.  It  is  in 
pursuance  of  an  arrangement  I  made  yesterday  with  his  uncle, 
Honorable  A.  H.  Stephens.     Acknowledge  receipt. 

5//z.  (Proposed  Draft  of  Message  to  Congress.)  I  re- 
spectfully recommend  that  a  joint  resolution,  substantially  as 
follows,  be  adopted  so  soon  as  practicable  by  your  honorable 
bodies :  "Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  Congress  assembled,  That 
the  President  of  the  United  States  is  hereby  empowered,  in 
his  discretion,  to  pay  $400,000,000  to  the  States  of  Alabama, 
Arkansas,  Delaware,  Florida,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  Louisiana, 
Maryland,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Virginia,  and  West  Virginia,  in 
the  manner  and  on  the  conditions  following,  to  wit:  The 
payment  to  be  made  in  six  per  cent,  government  bonds,  and 
to  be  distributed  among  the  said  States  pro  rata  on  their  re- 
spective slave  populations  as  shown  by  the  census  of  i860,  and 
no  part  of  said  sum  to  be  paid  unless  all  resistance  to  the 
national  authority  shall  be  abandoned  and  cease,  on  or  before 
the  first  day  of  April  next;  and  upon  such  abandonment  and 
ceasing  of  resistance  one  half  of  said  sum  to  be  paid  in  manner 
aforesaid,  and  the  remaining  half  to  be  paid  only  upon  the 
amendment  of  the  National  Constitution  recently  proposed  by 
Congress  becoming  valid  law,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of 


448  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

July  next,  by  the  action  thereon  of  the  requisite  number  of 
States," 

The  adoption  of  such  resolution  is  sought  with  a  view  to 
embody  it,  with  other  propositions,  in  a  proclamation  looking 
to  peace  and  reunion. 

Whereas,  a  joint  resolution  has  been  adopted  by  Congress, 
in  the  words  following,  to  wit : 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  that  on 
the  conditions  therein  stated,  the  power  conferred  on  the  execu- 
tive in  and  by  said  joint  resolution  will  be  fully  exercised;  that 
war  will  cease  and  armies  be  reduced  to  a  basis  of  peace ;  that 
all  political  offenses  will  be  pardoned ;  that  all  property,  except 
slaves,  liable  to  confiscation  or  forfeiture,  will  be  released 
therefrom,  except  in  cases  of  intervening  interests  of  third  par- 
ties ;  and  that  liberality  will  be  recommended  to  Congress  upon 
all  points  not  lying  within  executive  control. 

[Indorsement.] 

To-day  these  papers,  which  explain  themselves,  were  drawn 
up  and  submitted  to  the  Cabinet  and  unanimously  disapproved 
by  them. 

8  th.  (To  Congress.)  The  joint  resolution  entitled: 
"Joint  resolution  declaring  certain  States  not  entitled  to  repre- 
sentation in  the  Electoral  College,"  has  been  signed  by  the 
Executive,  in  deference  to  the  view  of  Congress  implied  in  its 
passage  and  presentation  to  him.  In  his  own  view,  however, 
the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  convened  under  the  twelfth 
article  of  the  Constitution,  have  complete  power  to  exclude 
from  counting  all  electoral  votes  deemed  by  them  to  be  illegal, 
and  it  is  not  competent  for  the  Executive  to  defeat  or  obstruct 
that  power  by  a  veto,  as  would  be  the  case  if  his  action  were  at 
all  essential  in  the  matter.  He  disclaims  all  right  of  the 
Executive  to  interfere  in  any  way  in  the  matter  of  canvassing 


age  56]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  449 

or  counting  electoral  votes,  and  he  also  disclaims  that,  by 
signing  said  resolution,  he  has  expressed  any  opinion  on  the 
recitals  of  the  preamble,  or  any  judgment  of  his  own  upon  the 
subject  of  the  resolution. 

pth.  (To  a  Committee  of  Congress,  Reporting  the  Result 
of  the  Electoral  Count.)  With  deep  gratitude  to  my  country- 
men for  this  mark  of  their  confidence;  with  a  distrust  of  my 
own  ability  to  perform  the  duty  required  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  and  now  rendered  doubly  difficult  by 
existing  national  perils ;  yet  with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  strength 
of  our  free  government,  and  the  eventual  loyalty  of  the  people 
to  the  just  principles  upon  which  it  is  founded,  and  above  all 
with  an  unshakable  faith  in  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  nations,  I 
accept  this  trust.  Be  pleased  to  signify  this  to  the  respective 
Houses  of  Congress. 

10th.  (To  A.  H.  Stephens.)  According  to  our  agreement, 
your  nephew,  Lieutenant  Stephens,  goes  to  you  bearing  this 
note.  Please,  in  return,  to  select  and  send  to  me  that  officer 
of  the  same  rank  imprisoned  at  Richmond,  whose  physical  con- 
dition most  urgently  requires  his  release. 

1 2th.  (To  General  J.  Pope.)  I  understand  that  provost- 
marshals  in  different  parts  of  Missouri  are  assuming  to  de- 
cide that  the  conditions  of  bonds  are  forfeited,  and  therefore 
are  seizing  and  selling  property  to  pay  damages.  This,  if 
true,  is  both  outrageous  and  ridiculous.  Do  not  allow  it.  The 
courts,  and  not  provost-marshals,  are  to  decide  such  questions 
unless  when  military  necessity  makes  an  exception. 

20th.  (To  James  Gordon  Bennett.)  I  propose,  at  some 
convenient  and  not  distant  day,  to  nominate  you  to  the  United 
States  Senate  as  Minister  to  France. 

It  seems  that  there  is  now  no  organized  military  force  of 
the  enemy  in  Missouri,  and  yet  that  destruction  of  property 
and  life  is  rampant  everywhere.    Is  not  the  cure  for  this  within 


450  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

easy  reach  of  the  people  themselves?  It  can  not  but  be  that 
every  man  not  naturally  a  robber  or  cut-throat  would  gladly 
put  an  end  to  this  state  of  things.  A  large  majority  in  every 
locality  must  feel  alike  upon  this  subject;  and  if  so,  they  only 
need  to  reach  an  understanding,  one  with  another.  Each 
leaving  all  others  alone  solves  the  problem;  and  surely  each 
would  do  this  but  for  his  apprehension  that  others  will  not 
leave  him  alone.  Can  not  this  mischievous  distrust  be  removed  ? 
Let  the  neighborhood  meetings  be  everywhere  called  and  held 
of  all  entertaining  a  sincere  purpose  for  mutual  security  in  the 
future,  whatever  they  may  heretofore  have  thought,  said,  or 
done  about  the  war,  or  about  anything  else.  Let  all  such  meet, 
and,  waiving  all  else,  pledge  each  to  cease  harassing  others, 
and  to  make  common  cause  against  whoever  persists  in  making, 
aiding,  or  encouraging  further  disturbance.  The  practical 
means  they  will  best  know  how  to  adopt  and  apply.  At  such 
meetings  old  friendships  will  cross  the  memory,  and  honor  and 
Christian  charity  will  come  in  to  help. 

March  3rd.  (To  Grant,  from  the  Secretary  of  War.) 
The  President  directs  me  to  say  that  he  wishes  you  to  have 
no  conference  with  General  Lee  unless  it  be  for  capitulation 
of  General  Lee's  army,  or  on  some  minor  or  purely  military 
matter.  He  instructs  me  to  say  that  you  are  not  to  decide, 
discuss,  or  confer  upon  any  political  questions.  Such  questions 
the  President  holds  in  his  own  hands,  and  will  submit  them  to 
no  military  conferences  or  conventions.  Meanwhile  you  are 
to  press  to  your  utmost  your  military  advantages. 

4th.  (Second  Inaugural  Address.)  At  this  second 
appearing  to  take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there 
is  less  occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at  the 
first.  Then  a  statement  somewhat  in  detail  of  a  course  to  be 
pursued  seemed  fitting  and  proper.  Now  at  the  expiration  of 
four  years,  during  which  public  declarations  have  been  con- 
stantly called  forth  on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  con- 


age  56]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  451 

test  which  still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies 
of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented. 

The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly 
depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself;  and  it 
is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all. 
With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is 
ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all 
thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil  war. 
All  dreaded  it,  all  sought  to  avert  it.  While  the  inaugural 
address  was  being  delivered  from  this  place,  devoted  altogether 
to  saving  the  Union  without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the 
city  seeking  to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  dep- 
recated war,  but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather  than  let 
the  nation  survive,  and  the  other  would  accept  war  rather  than 
let  it  perish,  and  the  war  came.  One-eighth  of  the  whole 
population  were  colored  slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over 
the  Union,  but  localized  in  the  Southern  part  of  it.  These 
slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew 
that  this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To 
strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was  the  object 
for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union,  even  by  war ; 
while  the  government  claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to 
restrict  the  territorial  enlargement  of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  the 
duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither  anticipated  that 
the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the 
conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph, 
and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding. 

Both  read  the  same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God,  and 
each  invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange 
that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in 
wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces,  but 


452  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayers  of  both 
could  not  be  answered.  That  of  neither  has  been  answered 
fully.  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offences  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences 
come,  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offence  cometh.  If 
we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those  offences 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which 
having  continued  through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills 
to  remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this 
terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offence 
came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  Divine 
attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to 
Him?  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman's 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk, 
and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid 
by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  The  judgments  of  the  Lord 
are  true  and  righteous  altogether. 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us 
strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and 
for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all 
nations. 

$th.  (To  Charles  Sumner.)  I  should  be  pleased  for  you  to 
accompany  us  to-morrow  evening  at  ten  o'clock  on  a  visit  of 
half  an  hour  to  the  inaugural  ball.  I  inclose  a  ticket.  Our 
carriage  will  call  for  you  at  half -past  nine. 

6th.  (To  Secretary  Seward.)  I  have  some  wish  that 
Thomas  D.  Jones,  of  Cincinnati,  and  John  J.  Piatt,  now  in 
this  city,  should  have  some  of  those  moderate  sized  consulates 


age  56]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  453 

which  facilitate  artists  a  little  in  their  profession.  Please 
watch  for  chances. 

9th.  (To  Grant.)  I  see  your  despatch  to  the  Secretary  of 
War  objecting  to  rebel  prisoners  being  allowed  to  take  the  oath 
and  go  free.  Supposing  that  I  am  responsible  for  what  is  done 
in  this  way,  I  think  fit  to  say  that  there  is  no  general  rule  of 
action,  allowing  prisoners  to  be  discharged  merely  on  taking 
the  oath.  What  has  been  done  is  that  members  of  Congress 
come  to  me,  from  time  to  time,  with  lists  of  names,  alleging 
that  from  personal  knowledge,  and  evidence  of  reliable  persons, 
they  are  satisfied  that  it  is  safe  to  discharge  the  particular 
persons  named  on  the  lists,  and  I  have  ordered  their  discharge. 
These  members  are  chiefly  from  the  border  States,  and  those 
they  get  discharged  are  their  neighbors  and  neighbors'  sons. 
They  tell  me  that  they  do  not  bring  to  me  one-tenth  of  the 
names  which  are  brought  to  them,  bringing  only  such  as  their 
knowledge  or  the  proof  satisfied  them  about.  I  have,  on  the 
same  principle,  discharged  some  on  the  representations  of  oth- 
ers than  members  of  Congress,  as,  for  instance,  Governor 
Johnson,  of  Tennessee.  The  number  I  have  discharged  has 
been  rather  larger  than  I  liked,  reaching,  I  should  think,  an 
average  of  fifty  a  day  since  the  recent  general  exchange  com- 
menced. On  the  same  grounds,  last  year,  I  discharged  quite  a 
number  at  different  times,  aggregating  perhaps  a  thousand, 
Missourians  and  Kentuckians;  and  their  members,  returning 
here  since  the  prisoners'  return  to  their  homes,  report  to  me 
only  two  cases  of  proving  false.  Doubtless  some  more  have 
proved  false,  but,  on  the  whole,  I  believe  what  I  have  done  in 
this  way  has  done  good,  rather  than  harm. 

15th.  (To  Thurlow  Weed.)  Every  one  likes  a  compliment. 
Thank  you  for  yours  on  my  little  notification  speech  and  on 
the  recent  inaugural  address. 

I  expect  the  latter  to  wear  as  well  as,  perhaps  better  than, 
anything  I  have  produced;  but  I  believe  it  is  not  immediately 


454  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1865 

popular.  Men  are  not  flattered  by  being  shown  that  there  has 
been  a  difference  of  purpose  between  the  Almighty  and  them. 
To  deny  it,  however,  in  this  case  is  to  deny  that  there  is  a  God 
governing  the  world. 

It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought  needed  to  be  told,  and,  as 
whatever  of  humiliation  there  is  in  it  falls  most  directly  on 
myself,  I  thought  others  might  afford  for  me  to  tell  it. 

i?th.  There  are  but  few  views  or  aspects  of  this  great 
war  upon  which  I  have  not  said  or  written  something  whereby 
my  own  opinions  might  be  known.  But  there  is  one — the  re- 
cent attempt  of  our  erring  brethren,  as  they  are  sometimes 
called,  to  employ  the  negro  to  fight  for  them.  I  have  neither 
written  nor  made  a  speech  on  that  subject,  because  that  was 
their  business,  not  mine,  and  if  I  had  a  wish  upon  the  subject, 
I  had  not  the  power  to  introduce  it,  or  make  it  effective.  The 
great  question  with  them  was  whether  the  negro,  being  put 
into  the  army  will  fight  for  them.  I  do  not  know,  and  there- 
fore can  not  decide.  They  ought  to  know  better  than  me.  I 
have  in  my  lifetime  heard  many  arguments  why  the  negroes 
ought  to  be  slaves ;  but  if  they  fight  for  those  who  would  keep 
them  in  slavery,  it  would  be  a  better  argument  than  any  I  have 
yet  heard.    He  who  will  fight  for  that  ought  to  be  a  slave. 

I  will  say  one  thing  in  regard  to  the  negroes  being  employed 
to  fight  for  them.  I  do  know  he  can  not  fight  and  stay  at 
home  and  make  bread  too.  And  as  one  is  about  as  important  as 
the  other  to  them,  I  don't  care  which  they  do.  I  am  rather  in 
favor  of  having  them  try  them  as  soldiers.  They  lack  one 
vote  of  doing  that,  and  I  wish  I  could  send  my  vote  over  the 
river  so  that  I  might  cast  it  in  favor  of  allowing  the  negro  to 
fight.  But  they  can  not  fight  and  work  both.  We  must  now 
see  the  bottom  of  the  enemy's  resources.  They  will  stand  out 
as  long  as  they  can,  and  if  the  negro  will  fight  for  them  they 
must  allow  him  to  fight.  They  have  drawn  upon  their  last 
branch  of  resources,  and  we  can  now  see  the  bottom. 


age  56]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  455 

(Senator  Sumner  calls  on  the  President  with  regard  to 
official  business.) 

Come  to  me  when  I  open  shop  in  the  morning;  I  will  have 
the  order  written  and  you  shall  see  it. 

(Sumner:  When  do  you  open  shop?) 

At  nine  o'clock. 

18th.  (Sumner  arrives  early  and  receives  the  desired 
order.  Lincoln  asks  Sumner  if  he  is  familiar  with  the  writings 
of  Petroleum  V.  Naseby.    Sumner  is  not.) 

I  must  initiate  you. 

(Lincoln  reads  aloud  from  Naseby.) 

For  the  genius  to  write  these  things  I  would  gladly  give 
up  my  office. 

I  am  unwilling  for  the  sentence  [of  two  contractors] 
to  stand,  and  be  executed,  to  any  extent  in  this  case.  In  the 
absence  of  a  more  adequate  motive  than  the  evidence  discloses, 
I  am  wholly  unable  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  criminal  or 
fraudulent  intent  on  the  part  of  the  men  of  such  well  established 
good  character.  If  the  evidence  went  as  far  to  establish  a  guilty 
profit  of  one  or  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  as  it  does  of  one 
or  two  hundred  dollars,  the  case  would,  on  the  question  of  guilt, 
bear  a  far  different  aspect.  That  on  this  contract,  involving 
some  twelve  thousand  dollars,  the  contractors  would  plan,  and 
attempt  to  execute  a  fraud  which,  at  the  most  could  profit  them 
only  one  or  two  hundred,  or  even  one  thousand  dollars,  is  to 
my  mind  beyond  the  power  of  rational  belief.  That  they  did 
not,  in  such  a  case,  make  far  greater  gains,  proves  that  they 
did  not,  with  guilty  or  fraudulent  intent,  make  at  all.  The 
judgment  and  sentence  are  disapproved,  and  declared  null,  and 
the  defendants  are  fully  discharged. 

20th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  Your  kind  invitation 
received.  Had  already  thought  of  going  immediately  after  the 
next  rain.    Will  go  sooner  if  any  reason  for  it.    Mrs.  L.  and 


456  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

a  few  others  will  probably  accompany  me.    Will  notify  you  of 
exact  time,  once  it  shall  be  fixed  upon. 

23rd.  (To  Grant.)'  We  start  to  you  at  1  p.  m.  to-day. 
May  lie  over  during  the  dark  hours  of  the  night.  Very  small 
party  of  us. 

25th.     City  Point. 

Arrived  here  all  safe  about  9  p.  m.  yesterday.  No  war 
news.  General  Grant  does  not  seem  to  know  very  much  about 
Yeatman,  but  thinks  very  well  of  him  so  far  as  he  does  know. 

General  Lee  has  sent  the  Russell  letter  back,  concluding,  as 
I  understand  from  Grant,  that  their  dignity  does  not  admit  of 
their  receiving  the  document  from  us.  Robert  just  now  tells 
me  there  was  a  little  rumpus  up  the  line  this  morning,  ending 
about  where  it  began. 

(To  Stanton.)  I  am  here  within  five  miles  of  the  scene 
of  this  morning's  action.  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  what 
General  Meade  reports,  except  that  I  have  seen  the  prisoners 
myself,  and  they  look  like  there  might  be  the  number  he 
states — 1600. 

30th.  7:30  P.  m.  I  begin  to  feel  that  I  ought  to  be  at 
home,  and  yet  I  dislike  to  leave  without  seeing  nearer  to  the 
end  of  General  Grant's  present  movement.  He  has  now  been 
out  since  yesterday  morning,  and  although  he  has  not  been 
diverted  from  his  programme,  no  considerable  effort  has  yet 
been  produced,  so  far  as  we  know  here.  Last  night  at  10:15 
when  it  was  dark  as  a  rainy  night  without  a  moon  could  be,  a 
furious  cannonade,  soon  joined  in  by  a  heavy  musketry  fire, 
opened  near  Petersburg  and  lasted  about  two  hours.  The 
sound  was  very  distinct  here  as  also  were  the  flashes  of  the 
guns  upon  the  clouds.  It  seemed  to  me  a  great  battle,  but  the 
older  hands  here  scarcely  noticed  it,  and  sure  enough  this 
morning  it  was  found  that  very  little  had  been  done. 

j  1st.  At  12  130  p.  m.  to-day  General  Grant  telegraphed  me 
as  follows; 


age  56]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  457 

There  has  been  much  hard  fighting  this  morning.  The  enemy 
drove  our  left  from  near  Dabney's  house  back  well  toward  the 
Boydton  plank  road.  We  are  now  about  to  take  the  offensive 
at  that  point,  and  I  hope  will  more  than  recover  the  lost 
ground. 

Later  he  telegraphed  again  as  follows : 

Our  troops,  after  being  driven  back  to  the  Boydton  plank 
road,  turned  and  drove  the  enemy  in  turn  and  took  the  White 
Oak  road,  which  we  now  have.  This  gives  us  the  ground 
occupied  by  the  enemy  this  morning.  I  will  send  you  a  rebel 
flag  captured  by  our  troops  in  driving  the  enemy  back.  There 
have  been  four  flags  captured  to-day. 

Judging  by  the  two  points  from  which  General  Grant 
telegraphs,  I  infer  that  he  moved  his  headquarters  about  one 
mile  since  he  sent  the  first  of  the  two  despatches. 

(To  an  officer  who  complained  that  Sherman  had  threat- 
ened to  shoot  him.)  Threatened  to  shoot  you!  Well  (in  a 
stage  whisper)  if  I  were  you,  I  would  keep  away  from  him;  if 
he  threatens  to  shoot,  I  would  not  trust  him,  for  I  believe  he 
would  do  it. 

April  1st.  (To  the  Secretary  of  War.)  I  have  had  two 
despatches  from  General  Grant  since  my  last  to  you,  but  they 
contain  little  additional,  except  that  Sheridan  also  had  pretty 
hot  work  yesterday,  that  infantry  was  sent  to  his  support  during 
the  night,  and  that  he  (Grant)  has  not  since  heard  from 
Sheridan.  Mrs.  Lincoln  has  started  home,  and  I  will  thank  you 
to  see  that  our  coachman  is  at  the  Arsenal  wharf  at  8  o'clock 
to-morrow  morning,  there  to  wait  until  she  arrives. 

(To  Grant.)  Yours  showing  Sheridan's  success  of  to-day 
is  just  received  and  highly  appreciated.  Having  no  great  deal 
to  do  here,  I  am  still  sending  the  substance  of  your  despatches 
to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

2nd.  At  4:30  p.  m.  to-day  General  Grant  telegraphs  that 
he  has  Petersburg  completely  enveloped  from  river  below  to 


458  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1865 

river  above,  and  has  captured,  since  he  started  last  Wednesday, 
about  12,000  prisoners  and  50  guns.  He  suggests  that  I  shall 
go  out  and  see  him  in  the  morning,  which  I  think  I  will  do. 

Despatches  are  frequently  coming  in.  All  going  finely. 
Parke,  Wright,  and  Ord's  lines  are  extending  from  the  Appo- 
mattox to  Hatcher's  Run.  They  have  all  broken  through  the 
enemy's  intrenched  lines,  taking  some  forts,  guns,  and  prisoners. 
Sheridan,  with  his  own  cavalry,  the  Fifth  Corps,  and  part  of 
the  Second,  is  coming  in  from  the  west  on  the  enemy's  flank. 
Wright  is  already  tearing  up  the  South  Side  Railroad. 

(To  Grant.)  Allow  me  to  tender  to  you  and  all  with  you 
the  nation's  thanks  for  this  additional  and  magnificent  success. 
At  your  kind  suggestion  I  think  I  will  meet  you  to-morrow. 

3rd.  8 130  A.  M.  This  morning  General  Grant  reports 
Petersburg  evacuated,  and  he  is  confident  that  Richmond  also 
is.  He  is  pushing  forward  to  cut  off,  if  possible,  the  retreating 
rebel  army. 

5  p.  M.  Yours  received.  Thanks  for  your  caution,  but  I 
have  already  been  to  Petersburg.  Stayed  with  General  Grant  an 
hour  and  a  half  and  returned  here.  It  is  certain  now  that 
Richmond  is  in  our  hands,  and  I  think  I  will  go  there  to- 
morrow.   I  will  take  care  of  myself. 

(Speaking  of  a  conversation  with  Grant  who  wanted  to 
know  what  he  should  do  if  Davis  was  captured.)  About 
that,  I  told  him  the  story  of  an  Irishman  who  had  taken  the 
pledge  of  Fathew  Matthew.  He  became  terribly  thirsty,  applied 
to  a  bar-tender  for  a  lemonade,  and  while  it  was  being  pre- 
pared whispered  to  him,  "And  couldn't  ye  put  a  little  brandy 
in  it  all  unbeknown  to  meself  ?"  I  told  Grant  if  he  could  let 
Jeff  Davis  escape  all  unbeknown  to  himself,  to  let  him  go.  I 
didn't  want  him. 

$th.    Richmond. 

(Unsigned  Memorandum  given  to  J.  A.  Campbell.)     As 


age  56]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  459 

to  peace,  I  have  said  before,  and  now  repeat,  that  three  things 
are  indispensable : 

1.  The  restoration  of  the  national  authority  throughout  the 
United  States. 

2.  No  receding  by  the  executive  of  the  United  States  on 
the  slavery  question  from  the  position  assumed  thereon  in  the 
late  annual  message,  and  in  preceding  documents. 

3.  No  cessation  of  hostilities  short  of  an  end  of  the  war, 
and  the  disbanding  of  all  forces  hostile  to  the  government. 
That  all  propositions  coming  from  those  now  in  hostility  to  the 
government,  not  inconsistent  with  the  foregoing,  will  be  re- 
spectfully considered  and  passed  upon  in  a  spirit  of  sincere 
liberality. 

I  now  add  that  it  seems  useless  for  me  to  be  more  specific 
with  those  who  will  not  say  that  they  are  ready  for  the  in- 
dispensable terms,  even  on  conditions  to  be  named  by  them- 
selves. If  there  be  any  who  are  ready  for  these  indispensable 
terms,  on  any  condition  whatever,  let  them  say  so,  and  state 
their  conditions,  so  that  the  conditions  can  be  known  and  con- 
sidered. It  is  further  added,  that  the  remission  of  confiscation 
being  within  the  executive  power,  if  the  war  be  now  further 
persisted  in  by  those  opposing  the  government,  the  making  of 
confiscated  property  at  least  to  bear  the  additional  cost  will 
be  insisted  on,  but  that  confiscations  (except  in  case  of  third 
party  intervening  interests)  will  be  remitted  to  the  people  of  any 
state  which  shall  now  promptly  and  in  good  faith  withdraw  its 
troops  from  further  resistance  to  the  government.  What  is 
now  said  as  to  the  remission  of  confiscation  has  not  reference 
to  supposed  property  in  slaves. 

6th.  City  Point.  (To  Grant.)  Secretary  Seward  was 
thrown  from  his  carriage  yesterday  and  seriously  injured. 
This,  with  other  matters,  will  take  me  to  Washington  soon. 
I  was  at  Richmond  yesterday  and  the  day  before,  when  and 
where  Judge  Campbell,  who  was  with  Messrs.   Hunter  and 


460  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1865 

Stephens  in  February,  called  on  me  and  made  such  represen- 
tations as  induced  me  to  put  in  his  hands  an  informal  paper, 
repeating  the  propositions  in  my  letter  of  instructions  to  Mr. 
Seward,  which  you  remember,  and  adding  that  if  the  war  now 
be  further  persisted  in  by  the  rebels  confiscated  property  shall, 
at  the  least,  bear  the  additional  cost;  and  that  confiscation  shall 
be  remitted  to  the  people  of  any  State  which  will  now,  promptly 
and  in  good  faith,  withdraw  its  troops  and  other  support  from 
resistance  to  the  Government.  Judge  Campbell  thought  it  not 
impossible  that  the  rebel  Legislature  of  Virginia  would  do  the 
latter  if  permitted,  and  accordingly  I  addressed  a  private  letter 
to  General  Weitzel,  with  permission  to  Judge  Campbell  to  see 
it,  telling  him  (General  W.)  that  if  they  attempt  this,  to  permit 
and  protect  them,  unless  they  attempt  something  hostile  to  the 
United  States,  in  which  case  to  give  them  notice  and  time  to 
leave,  and  to  arrest  any  remaining  after  such  time. 

I  do  not  think  it  very  probable  that  anything  will  come  of 
this,  but  I  have  thought  best  to  notify  you  so  that  if  you  should 
see  signs  you  may  understand  them. 

(To  General  G.  Weitzel.)  It  has  been  intimated  to  me  that 
the  gentlemen  who  have  acted  as  the  legislature  of  Virginia, 
in  support  of  the  rebellion,  may  now  desire  to  assemble  at 
Richmond  and  take  measures  to  withdraw  the  Virginia  troops 
and  other  supports  from  resistance  to  the  General  Government. 
If  they  attempt  it,  give  them  permission  and  protection,  until, 
if  at  all,  they  attempt  some  action  hostile  to  the  United  States, 
in  which  case  you  will  notify  them,  give  them  reasonable  time 
to  leave,  and  at  the  end  of  which  time  arrest  any  who  remain. 
Allow  Judge  Campbell  to  see  this,  but  do  not  make  it  public. 

?th.  (To  General  U.  S.  Grant.)  General  Sheridan  says 
"If  the  thing  is  pressed  I  think  that  Lee  will  surrender."  Let 
the  thing  be  pressed. 

April  pth.    Surrender  of  Lee, 


age  56]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  461 

(While  walking  through  a  lonely  country  graveyard  in  Vir- 
ginia with  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  Mary,  you  are  younger  than  I;  you 
will  survive  me.  When  I  am  gone,  lay  my  remains  in  some 
quiet  place  like  this.* 

nth.  At  Washington.  (Last  Public  Address.) 
We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  gladness  of 
heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and  the 
surrender  of  the  principal  insurgent  army,  give  hope  of  a 
righteous  and  speedy  peace,  whose  joyous  expression  can  not 
be  restrained.  In  the  midst  of  this,  however,  He  from  whom 
all  blessings  flow  must  not  be  forgotten. 

A  call  for  a  national  thanksgiving  is  being  prepared,  and 
will  be  duly  promulgated.  Nor  must  those  whose  harder  part 
give  us  the  cause  of  rejoicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honors 
must  not  be  parceled  out  with  others.  I  myself  was  near  the 
front,  and  had  the  high  pleasure  of  transmitting  much  of  the 
good  news  to  you;  but  no  part  of  the  honor  for  plan  or 
execution  is  mine.  To  General  Grant,  his  skilful  officers  and 
brave  men,  all  belongs.  The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was 
not  in  reach  to  take  active  part.  By  these  recent  successes  the 
reinauguration  of  the  national  authority — reconstruction — 
which  has  had  a  large  share  of  thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed 
much  more  closely  upon  our  attention.  It  is  fraught  with  great 
difficulty.  Unlike  a  case  of  war  between  independent  nations, 
there  is  no  authorized  organ  for  us  to  treat  with — no  one  man 
has  authority  to  give  up  the  rebellion  for  any  other  man.  We 
simply  must  begin  with  and  mold  from  disorganized  and 
discordant  elements.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  embarrassment 
that  we,  the  loyal  people,  differ  among  ourselves  as  to  the  mode, 
manner,  and  measure  of  reconstruction.  As  a  general  rule, 
I  abstain  from  reading  the  reports  of  attacks  upon  myself, 
wishing  not  to  be  provoked  by  that  to  which  I  can  not  properly 
offer  an  answer.     In  spite  of  this  precaution,   however,   it 


*Date  conjectural. 


462  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

comes  to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much  censured  for  some 
supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking  to  sustain  the  new 
State  Government  of  Louisiana.    .    .    . 

As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before  stated. 
But  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than  kept,  I  shall  treat 
this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break  it  whenever  I  shall  be  con- 
vinced that  keeping  it  is  adverse  to  the  public  interest;  but  I 
have  not  yet  been  so  convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter 
on  this  subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in  which  the  writer 
expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not  seemed  to  be  definitely 
fixed  on  the  question  whether  the  seceded  States,  so  called, 
are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it.  It  would  perhaps  add  astonish- 
ment to  his  regret  were  he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found 
professed  Union  men  endeavoring  to  make  that  question,  I 
have  purposely  forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As 
appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor  yet  is,  a 
practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion  of  it,  while  it 
thus  remains  practically  immaterial,  could  have  no  effect  other 
than  the  mischievous  one  of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet, 
whatever  it  may  hereafter  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the 
basis  of  a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing  at  all — a  merely 
pernicious  abstraction.  We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  States, 
so  called,  are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union,  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  Government,  civil  and 
military,  in  regard  to  those  States,  is  to  again  get  them  into 
that  proper  relation.  I  believe  that  it  is  not  only  possible,  but 
in  fact  easier,  to  do  this  without  deciding  or  even  considering 
whether  these  States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than 
with  it.  Finding  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would  be 
utterly  immaterial  whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad.  Let  us 
all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restoring  the  proper 
practical  relations  between  these  States  and  the  Union,  and 
each  forever  after  innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether 
in  doing  the  acts  he  brought  the  State  from  without  into  the 


AGES6]  AN"    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  463 

Union,  or  only  gave  them  proper  assistance,  they  never  having 
been  out  of  it.  The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak,  on 
which  the  new  Louisiana  Government  rests,  would  be  more 
satisfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  fifty  thousand  or  thirty 
thousand,  or  even  twenty  thousand,  instead  of  only  about 
twelve  thousand,  as  it  does.  It  is  also  unsatisfactory  to  some 
that  the  elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  colored  man.  I 
would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the  very 
intelligent,  and  on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as  soldiers.  Still, 
the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana  Government,  as  it 
stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable.  The  question  is,  will  it  be 
wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and  help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and 
disperse  it?  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical 
relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding 
her  new  State  Government?  Some  twelve  thousand  voters  in 
the  heretofore  slave  State  of  Louisiana  have  sworn  allegiance 
to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the  rightful  political  power  of  the 
State,  held  elections,  organized  a  State  Government,  adopted 
a  Free-State  Constitution,  giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools 
equally  to  black  and  white,  and  empowering  the  legislature  to 
confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man.  Their 
Legislature  has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  Constitutional 
Amendment  recently  passed  by  Congress,  abolishing  slavery 
throughout  the  nation.  These  twelve  thousand  persons  are 
thus  committed  to  the  Union  and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the 
State — committed  to  the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things, 
the  nation  wants — and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and  its 
assistance  to  make  good  their  committal.  Now  if  we  reject  and 
spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost  to  disorganize  and  disperse  them. 
We,  in  effect,  say  to  the  white  man,  "You  are  worthless  or 
worse ;  we  will  neither  help  you,  nor  be  helped  by  you."  To  the 
blacks  we  say,  "This  cup  of  liberty  which  these,  your  old  masters, 
hold  to  your  lips  we  will  dash  from  you,  and  leave  you  to  the 
chances  of  gathering  the  spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some 


464  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1865 

vague  and  undefined  when,  where,  and  how."  If  this  course, 
discouraging  and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has  any 
tendency  to  bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical  relations  with 
the  Union,  I  have  so  far  been  unable  to  perceive  it.  If,  on  the 
contrary,  we  recognize  and  sustain  the  new  Government  of 
Louisiana,  the  converse  of  all  this  is  made  true.  We  encourage 
the  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the  twelve  thousand  to  adhere 
to  their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and  proselyte  for  it,  and  fight 
for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a  complete 
success.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all  united  for  him,  is 
inspired  with  vigilance,  and  energy,  and  daring,  to  the  same 
end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the  elective  franchise,  will  he  not 
attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the  already  advanced  steps  toward 
it  than  by  running  backward  over  them?  Concede  that  the 
new  government  of  Louisiana  is  only  what  it  should  be  as  the 
egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching 
the  egg  than  by  smashing  it.  Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana,  we 
also  reject  one  vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the 
National  Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition  it  has  been 
argued  that  no  more  than  three- fourths  of  those  States  which 
have  not  attempted  secession  are  necessary  to  validly  ratify  the 
amendment.  I  do  not  commit  myself  against  this  further  than 
to  say  that  such  a  ratification  would  be  questionable,  and  sure 
to  be  persistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and  unquestion- 
able. I  repeat  the  question,  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into 
proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or 
by  discarding  her  new  State  Government?  What  has  been 
said  of  Louisiana  will  apply  generally  to  other  States.  And 
yet  so  great  peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such 
important  and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State,  and 
withal  so  new  and  unprecedented  is  the  whole  case  that  no 
exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely  be  prescribed  as  to  de- 
tails and  collaterals.    Such  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  would 


age  56]  AN     AUTOBIOGRAPHY  465 

surely  become  a  new  entanglement.  Important  principles  may 
and  must  be  inflexible.  In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase 
goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some  new  announcement  to 
the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering,  and  shall  not  fail 
to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will  be  proper. 

1 2th.  (To  General  G.  Weitzel.)  I  have  seen  your  despatch 
to  Colonel  Hardie  about  the  matter  of  prayers.  I  do  not  re- 
member hearing  prayers  spoken  of  while  I  was  in  Richmond; 
but  I  have  no  doubt  you  have  acted  in  what  appeared  to  you  to 
be  the  spirit  and  temper  manifested  by  me  while  there.  Is  there 
any  sign  of  the  rebel  legislature  coming  together  on  the  under- 
standing of  my  letter  to  you  ?  If  there  is  any  such  sign,  inform 
me  what  it  is.  If  there  is  no  such  sign  you  may  withdraw 
the  offer. 

1 2th.  (Talking  with  Mrs.  Lincoln  about  a  dream  he  had 
had  in  which  he  beheld  a  catafalque  in  the  East  Room  of  the 
White  House  and  heard  a  voice  crying — The  President  has 
been  assassinated.)  The  (next)  time  I  opened  the  Bible, 
strange  as  it  may  appear,  it  was  at  the  twenty-eighth  chapter 
of  Genesis  which  relates  the  wonderful  dream  Jacob  had.  I 
turned  to  other  passages  and  seemed  to  encounter  a  dream  or  a 
vision  wherever  I  looked.  I  kept  on  turning  the  leaves  of  the 
Old  Book,  and  everywhere  my  eye  fell  upon  passages  recording 
matters  strangely  in  keeping  with  my  own  thoughts — super- 
natural visitations,  dreams,  visions,  etc.  (When  Lamon  seizes 
the  text  and  preaches  upon  the  danger  of  assassination,  Lin- 
coln laughs  at  his  downright  foolishness.)* 

(To  Major-General  Weitzel,  Richmond,  Virginia.)  I  have 
just  seen  Judge  Campbell's  letter  to  you  of  the  7th.  He 
assumes,  as  appears  to  me,  that  I  have  called  the  insurgent 
legislature  of  Virginia  together,  as  the  rightful  Legislature 
of  the  State,  to  settle  all  differences  with  the  LTnited  States.    I 


*Date  conjectural. 


466  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  [1865 

have  done  no  such  thing.  I  spoke  of  them,  not  as  a  legislature, 
but  as  "the  gentlemen  who  have  acted  as  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia  in  support  of  the  rebellion."  I  did  this  on  purpose 
to  exclude  the  assumption  that  I  was  recognizing  them  as  a 
rightful  body.  I  dealt  with  them  as  men  having  power  de 
facto  to  do  a  specific  thing,  to  wit :  "to  withdraw  the  Virginia 
troops  and  other  support  from  resistance  to  the  General 
Government/'  for  which,  in  the  paper  handed  Judge  Campbell, 
I  promised  a  specific  equivalent,  to  wit:  a  remission  to  the 
people  of  the  State,  except  in  certain  cases,  of  the  confiscation 
of  their  property.  I  meant  this,  and  no  more.  Inasmuch,  how- 
ever, as  Judge  Campbell  misconstrues  this,  and  is  still  pressing 
for  an  armistice,  contrary  to  the  explicit  statement  of  the  paper 
I  gave  him,  and  particularly  as  General  Grant  has  since  cap- 
tured the  Virginia  troops,  so  that  giving  a  consideration  for 
their  withdrawal  is  no  longer  applicable,  let  my  letter  to  you 
and  the  paper  to  Judge  Campbell  both  be  withdrawn,  or  coun- 
termanded, and  he  be  notified  of  it. 

Do  not  allow  them  to  assemble,  but  if  any  have  come,  allow 
them  safe  return  to  their  homes. 

13th.  (To  General  Creswell  who  wants  a  pardon  for  a 
Confederate  friend  of  his.)  Creswell,  you  make  me  think 
of  a  lot  of  young  folks  who  once  started  out  Maying.  To 
reach  their  destination,  they  had  to  cross  a  shallow  stream,  and 
did  so  by  means  of  an  old  flat-boat.  When  the  time  came  to 
return,  they  found  to  their  dismay  that  the  old  scow  had  dis- 
appeared. They  were  in  sore  trouble,  and  thought  over  all 
manner  of  devices  for  getting  over  the  water,  but  without 
avail. 

After  a  time,  one  of  the  boys  proposed  that  each  fellow 
should  pick  up  the  girl  he  liked  best  and  wade  over  with  her. 
The  masterly  proposition  was  carried  out,  until  all  that  were 
left  upon  the  island  was  a  little  short  chap  and  a  great,  long, 
gothic-built,  elderly  lady. 


age  56]  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY  467 

Now,  Creswell,  you  are  trying  to  leave  me  in  the  same 
predicament.  You  fellows  are  all  getting  your  own  friends 
out  of  this  scrape;  and  you  will  succeed  in  carrying  off  one 
after  another,  until  nobody  but  Jeff  Davis  and  myself  will  be 
left  on  the  island,  and  then  I  won't  know  what  to  do.  How 
should  I  feel?    How  should  I  look,  lugging  him  over? 

I  guess  the  way  to  avoid  such  an  embarrassing  situation  is 
to  let  them  all  out  at  once.* 

14th.  (To  the  Cabinet.)  I  hope  there  will  be  no  persecu- 
tion, no  bloody  work  after  the  war  is  over.  None  need  expect 
me  to  take  any  part  in  hanging  or  killing  them.  Frighten 
them  out  of  the  country,  let  down  the  bars,  scare  them  off. 
Enough  lives  have  been  sacrificed.  We  must  extinguish  our 
resentment  if  we  expect  harmony  and  union.  There  is  too 
much  desire  on  the  part  of  our  very  good  friends  to  be  masters, 
to  interfere  with  and  dictate  to  those  states,  to  treat  the  people 
not  as  fellow  citizens ;  there  is  too  little  respect  for  the  right. 
I  don't  sympathize  with  those  feelings. 

(Addressing  Secretary  Welles  while  recounting  a  strange 
dream  he  had  had  the  night  before.)  It  was  in  your  depart- 
ment. It  related  to  the  water.  I  seemed  to  be  in  a  singular 
and  indescribable  vessel  that  was  moving  with  great  rapidity 
toward  a  dark  and  indefinite  shore.  I  had  this  same  dream 
preceding  the  firing  on  Sumter,  the  battles  of  Bull  Run,  Antie- 
tam,  Gettysburg,  Stone  River,  Vicksburg,  Wilmington  and 
others.  Though  victory  has  not  always  followed  it,  some  im- 
portant event  has.  I  have  no  doubt,  this  time,  that  a  battle  has 
taken  place  or  is  about  to  be  fought  and  that  Johnson  will  be 
beaten.  My  dream  must  relate  to  Sherman.  My  thoughts  are 
in  that  direction  and  I  know  of  no  other  very  important  event 
which  is  very  likely  just  now  to  occur. 


*Date  conjectural. 


468  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN  [1865 

(To  Charles  A.  Dana,  who  reports  that  Jacob  Thompson, 
Confederate  secret  agent,  is  known  to  be  in  Portland.)  What 
does  Stanton  say? 

(Dana:  Arrest  him.) 

Well,  I  rather  guess  not.  When  you  have  an  elephant  on 
hand  and  he  wants  to  run  away,  better  let  him  run. 

(To  Lamon,  who  has  asked  him  to  sign  a  pardon.)  Do 
you  know  how  the  Patagonians  eat  oysters  ? 

(No,  I  do  not,  Mr.  Lincoln.) 

It  is  their  habit  to  open  them  as  fast  as  they  can  and  throw 
the  shells  out  of  the  window,  and  when  the  pile  of  shells  grows 
to  be  higher  than  the  house,  why,  they  pick  up  stakes  and 
move.  Now,  Lamon,  I  felt  like  beginning  a  new  pile  of  par- 
dons, and  I  guess  this  is  a  good  one  to  begin  on. 

(While  driving  with  Mrs.  Lincoln.)  We  have  had  a  hard 
time  since  we  came  to  Washington,  but  the  war  is  over,  and 
with  God's  blessings,  we  may  hope  for  four  years  of  peace 
and  happiness,  and  then  we  will  go  back  to  Illinois  and  pass  the 
rest  of  our  lives  in  quiet.  We  have  laid  by  some  money,  and 
during  this  time,  we  will  save  up  more,  but  shall  not  have 
enough  to  support  us.  We  will  go  back  to  Illinois.  I  will 
open  a  law  office  at  Springfield  or  Chicago  and  practise  law, 
and  at  least  do  enough  to  help  give  us  a  livelihood. 

(To  General  Van  Alen.)  I  intend  to  adopt  the  advice 
of  my  friends  and  use  due  precaution  ...  I  thank  you 
for  the  assurance  you  give  me  that  I  shall  be  supported  by 
conservative  men  like  yourself,  in  the  efforts  I  may  make  to 
restore  the  Union,  so  as  to  make  it,  to  use  your  language,  a 
Union  of  hearts  and  hands  as  well  as  of  States. 

Assassinated. 

15th.    Death  of  Lincoln. 


TABLE    OF     SOURCES 


TABLE     OF     SOURCES 

Key  to  Abbreviations  Used 

Paragraph    numbers    refer    to    quoted    matter    only.      Paragraphs    of 
editorial  comment  are  not  included  in  the  numbering. 
BARTON:     The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  William  E.  Barton,   1925. 

The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,   Indianapolis. 
CARPENTER:     Six  Months  in   the    White   House,   by   F.  B.   Carpenter, 

1866.     Hurd  and  Houghton,  New  York. 
C.    C.  W. :     Report   of   Committee   on   Conduct   of    War.      (S.    N. — serial 

number;   Supp. — Supplement.) 
CENTURY:     The  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  edited  by  John 

G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886.     The  Century  Company,  New  York. 
CRAWFORD:     The  Genesis  of  the  Civil   War,  by   Samuel  Wylie  Craw- 
ford, 1887.     Charles  L.  Webster  &   Companv,   New  York. 
CROSBY:     Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  F.  Crosby,  1865.     J.  A.  Potter, 

Philadelphia. 
CURTIS :     The  True  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  William  Eleroy  Curtis,   1902. 

J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia. 
GODWIN :     A   Biography  of  William  Cullen  Bryant  with  Extracts  from 

His  Private  Correspondence,  by  Parke  Godwin,   1883.     D.  Appleton 

&  Company,  New  York. 
GORHAM  :    Life  and  Public  Services  of  Edzvin  M.  Stanton,  by  George  C. 

Gorham,   1899.     Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston. 
H.    &    W. :     Abraham   Lincoln:      The    True   Story    of   a    Great    Life,   by 

William   H.   Herndon  and  Jesse   W.   Weik,   1892.     D.    Appleton  & 

Company,  New  York. 
HAY  MS. :     Diary  of  John  Hay.     Photostat  copies  in  the  library  of  the 

Massachusetts    Historical    Society,    accessible    only    by    special    per- 
mission. 
LAMON :     The   Life   of  Abraham  Lincoln,   by  Ward   H.    Lamon,    1872. 

James  R.  Osgood  &  Company,  Boston. 
McC.  REPT. :    Report  on  the  Organization  and  Campaigns  of  the  Army  of 

the  Potomac,  by  George  B.  McClellan,  1864.     Sheldon  and  Company, 

New  York. 
M.    M. :      The   Martyr's   Monument,   Being    the    Patriotism    and    Political 

Wisdom  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  Exhibited  in  His  Speeches,  Orders 

and  Proclamations  from  the  Presidential  Canvass  of  i860  until  His 

Assassination,  April  14,  1865.     1865.     The  American  News  Company, 

New  York. 
N.  R. :     Naval  Records  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion. 
O.  R. :     Official  Records  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion. 
PA.    HIS.     SOC:      Administrations.      Pennsylvania    Historical     Society. 

Philadelphia. 
POL.    D. :     Political   Debates   between   Honorable    Abraham   Lincoln   and 

Honorable    Stephen    A.    Douglas,    i860.      Follett,    Foster    and    Co., 

Columbus,  Ohio. 
PUTNAM :     The  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  edited  by  George 

Haven  Putnam  and  Doctor  Arthur  Brooks  Lapsley,  1888- 1906. 
R.    R.:      Rebellion   Record,    edited    by    Frank    Moore,    1861-1868.      G.    P. 

Putnam's  Sons,  New  York. 

471 


472  TABLE     OF     SOURCES 

RANKIN :    Intimate  Character  Sketches  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Henry 

B.  Rankin,   1924.     J.   B.  Lippincott  Company,   Philadelphia. 
RAYMOND:     The  Life   and   Public   Services   of   Abraham   Lincoln,   by 

Henry  J.  Raymond,  1865.     Derby  and  Miller,  New  York. 
REMINISCENCES:    Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Distinguished 

Men  of  His   Time,  edited  by  Allen  Thorndike  Rice,   1886.     North 

American  Publishing  Company,  New  York. 
SANDBURG:     Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Prairie  Years,  by  Carl  Sandburg, 

1926.     Harcourt,  Brace  &  Company,  New  York. 
SCHUCKERS:     Life  and  Public  Services    of    Chief   Justice    Chase,   by 

Jacob  W.  Schuckers,  1874.     D.  Appleton  &  Company,  New  York. 
SEN,   DOCS. :     Senate  Documents. 
SEWARD :     Seward  at   Washington  as  Senator  and  Secretary  of  State, 

by  Frederic  W.  Seward,  1890.     Derby  and  Miller,  New  York. 
STINE:     History  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  by  James  Henry  Stine, 

1892.     J.  B.  Rogers  Printing  Company,  Philadelphia. 
TARBELL:     The   Life  of  Abraham   Lincoln,  by   Ida   M.   Tarbell,   1895. 

The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York. 
TARBELL,  FOOTSTEPS:    In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  by  Ida  M. 

Tarbell,  1924.     Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York. 
TRACY:     Uncollected  Letters  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  brought  together  by 

Gilbert  A.  Tracy,  1917.     Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  New  York. 
WARDEN :     An   Account  of   the   Private   Life   and   Public   Services   of 

Salmon   Portland   Chase,  by   Robert    P.    Warden,    1874.     Wilstach, 

Baldwin  &  Company,  Cincinnati. 
WEED:    Memoir  of   Thurloiv    Weed,  by   Thurlow  Weed   Barnes,    1884. 

Houghton  Mifflin  &  Company,   New  York. 
WEIK:     The  Real  Lincoln,  by  Jesse  W.  Weik,  1922.     Houghton  Mifflin 

Company,  New  York. 
WELLES :     Diary  of  Gideon   Welles,  with  an   Introduction  by   John  T. 

Morse,  Jr.,  191 1.     Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  New  York. 

Note:  When  Tarbell  is  starred  and  no  volume  number  given,  it  always 
refers  to  Volume  IV,  Appendix. 

Where  no  paragraph  number  is  given  the  reference  is  to  the  entire  page. 

In  some  cases  matter  contained  in  the  standard  editions  of  Lincoln's 
writings  is  here  attributed  to  other  sources,  either  because  the  latter  are 
primary  or  because  of  considerations  of  copyright. 


TABLE     OF 

SOURCES 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

I 

I 

Century  VI,  24 

21 

I 

Tarbell,*    75 

2,3 

Lamon,  Appendix 

2f3 

Lamon,    182 

2 

I 

Century  VI,  39 

4,5 

»         209 

2 

"     26 

22 

i-3 

t>          „ 

3 

Weik,    17 

4 

182 

3 

I 

Tarbell    I,    17 

5 

Century  VI,  33 

2 

Curtis,  60 

6-9 

Tarbell  I,  148 
„         „     „ 

3 

Century  VI,  26 

23 

1 

4 

V,  287 

2-4 

Lamon,  178 

4 

i 

Curtis,  60 

24 

1-3 

178-179 

2 

Century  VI,  27 

25 

1,2 

"         179 

3 

"     28 

3 

Tarbell,*   74-75 

4 

"     27 

26 

1 

Lamon,    183 

5 

V,  287 ;  VI,  27 

27 

1 

«          » 

6 

H.  &  W.  I,  40 

28 

i-5 

Putnam  I,   148 

7,8 

Curtis,  59 

29 

1 

,,         „      ,, 

5 

i 

"        35-36 

2,3 

Tracy,  4 

2 

Century  VI,  151 

30 

1,2 

Lamon,   316 

6 

1 

Lamon,  Appendix 

3,4 

Century  I,    146 

2,3 

Curtis,   24 

31 

i-3 

Putnam   VII,   373 

4 

Century  VI,  28 

4 

Century   I,   150 

5 

"        V,  287 

32 

1-3 

"   157 

7 

I 

VI,  28 

4 

Tracy,  6 

2 

"   29 

33 

1,2 

Putnam   I,  242 

3 

"  29-30 

34 

1 

Century   I,   177 

8 

1,2 

,,                 J,         ,J      JJ 

35 

1,2 

,,         „      „ 

3 

"  31 

36 

1 

ft         y*      a 

4 

"   27-28 

2 

Putnam   I,  252 

5 

Lamon,    125 

37 

1-3 

Lamon,  244 

6 

129 

38 

1-4 

„          ,, 

9 

i 

,»           », 

5 

246 

2,3 

Century  VI,  31 

39 

i-3 

"        246-247 

4 

".       I.  9 

40 

1 

Tarbell,*    83 

5 

Curtis,  230 

2 

Putnam   I,  262 

10 

i 

Lamon,   307 

4i 

1,2 

„         „     „ 

2 

Tarbell,*    61 

42 

1,2 

Lamon,   247 

3 

I,   87 

43 

1,2 

Lamon,  248-249 

ii 

i 

Century  VI,  31 

44 

1 

,,           „     ,, 

2 

*     31-32 

2 

"         251 

3 

Tarbell    I,   96 

45 

1,2 

»          „ 

12 

I 

Curtis,  62 

3 

Tracy,   7 

2 

33 

46 

1 

«        ,> 

3 

»         „ 

2,3 

Lamon,  263-265 

13 

I 

Century  VI,  32 

47 

1-6 

,,          „     >r 

2 

»          >>      >> 

48 

i-3 

„          „     „ 

3 

T     *■          "     33 

4 

t>         ^.^^ 
252 

4 

Lamon,    164 

49 

1 

Weik,  58 

14 

i 

Lamon,    162 

2 

Barton   I,  265 

2-6 

186 

50 

1,2 

Tracy,  9 

7 

H.  &  W.   I,   168 

3 

Tarbell,*    84 

15 

1-3 

>>     ,»     »     }>      >> 

4 

Lamon,  270 

4,5 

Tarbell  I,   129-130 

5i 

!,2 

270-271 

16 

I 

Lamon,    181 

52 

I 

Tracy,  2 

17 

I 

,,           ,, 

2 

Lamon,   272 

2 

"         177 

53 

I 

Tracy,    12 

18 

!,2 

>»           >> 

2 

Tarbell,*    89 

19 

I 

Tarbell,*    75 

54 

I 

Tarbell  I,  202 

20 

ir3 

Tarbell,*    75 

55 

I 

Tracy,   14 

473 


474 

TABLE     OF 

SOURCES 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

55 

2 

Tarbell,*    90 

87 

2 

Putnam    II, 

136 

3,4 

Century   I,  283 

3 

Lamon,  309 

56 

1 

Tarbell,*    91 

88 

1 

„           „ 

2 

Century   I,  285 

2 

Century  II, 

124 

3 

Tarbell  I,  204-205 

3,4 

Tarbell  IV, 

96 

57 

1 

Tarbell,*    91 

89 

1 

Tracy,  39 

2 

Tracy,    18 

90 

1 

>>         » 

3 

Tarbell,  Footsteps,  271 

2-5 

Putnam  II, 

142 

4 

Century  I,  288 

9i 

1 

Century    II, 

129 

58 

1 

»         „      „ 

2 

Rankin,  76 

59 

,,         „     „ 

3 

Century   II, 

135 

60 

1,2 

Tarbell,*  91-92 

92 

1 

)>          >> 

}} 

3 

Lamon,    283 

2 

Tracy,  42 

61 

i-3 

278 

3 

Century  II, 

140 

4 

279 

93 

«           >) 

,, 

62 

1 

280 

94 

1 

»          }> 

»> 

2 

282 

2 

Lamon,   337 

63 

»           » 

95 

1,2 

336 

64 

»           „ 

3 

Putnam   II, 

151 

65 

1,2 

Tracy,   26 

4 

Lamon,   338 

3 

Century  I,   321 

96 

,,           ,, 

66 

1,2 

Lamon,    280 

97 

1 

Tarbell,    99 

67 

283 

2 

Putnam   II, 

163 

68 

„           » 

08 

„           » 

» 

69 

1,2 

291 

99 

1 

„           ,> 

», 

70 

1 

H.  &  W.  II,  282 

2 

Lamon,  341-342 

2 

Tracy,  27 

100 

1 

„           „ 

}j 

3,4 

Lamon,   293 

2 

Tarbell,*    9c 

\ 

7i 

1 

IOI 

1 

Century   II, 

180 

2 

294 

102 

1 

Lamon,  Appendix 

72 

1,2 

„           » 

2,3 

Century   II, 

184 

3 

"         295 

103 

1 

Putnam   II, 

178 

73 

I 

Lamon,   295 

104 

„           „ 

,, 

2,3 

Century  II,   55 

105 

»,           ,, 

» 

74 

Sandburg,  393 

106 

,,           ,, 

» 

75 

1-3 

396 

107 

„           „ 

,» 

4 

Lamon,   296 

108 

1,  2 

Tarbell,*    101 

76 

1 

303-307 

3 

Century   II, 

264 

77 

»          „     „ 

109 

1 

Putnam  VII 

,  382 

78 

1,2 

»          »     >f 

2,3 

Tarbell,*    101 

3 

Tracy,  34 

no 

I 

Century    II, 

267 

4 

35 

2-4 

Putnam   VII, 

79 

Tarbell,*    02 

in 

Century  II, 

279 

80 

1,2 

Tarbell    II,    18 

112 

,,           „ 

274 

3 

"     19 

113 

,,           » 

„ 

4 

Lamon,   308 

114 

1,2 

Tarbell,*    101 

81 

»           )> 

3 

Century   XI 

,   100 

82 

I 

Century  II,  97 

115 

1 

Tracy,   59 

2 

"     105 

2 

Century  n, 

279 

83 

I 

Tracy,  37 

116 

1,2 

„           ,, 

„ 

2 

Putnam  II,  127 

3 

Lamon,   368 

84 

i-3 

"    129 

117 

»           ,, 

85 

1 

Century  II,  no 

118 

i-3 

Tarbell    II, 

60 

2 

Lamon,   309 

4 

Tracy,  61 

3 

Putnam  II,  133 

119 

1 

,»         ,» 

86 

1,2 

Century  II,  118 

2,3 

Century   II, 

288 

3 

Tarbell,*    95 

120 

Lamon    373 

87 

1 

H.  &  W.  II,  299 

121 

I 

Tarbell,  Footsteps,  314 

TABLE    OF     SOURCES 


475 


PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

121 

2,3 

Tracy,  66 

122 

I 

Weik,  211 

2,3 

Century  II,  289 

4 

Tarbell,*  117 

5 

Putnam  II,  277 

123 

»>    ,,   >> 

124 

1 

Tracy,  69 

2-5 

Lamon,  381 

6 

Century  II,  299 

I2i 

126 

Putnam  II,  283 

127 

»»    ,,   », 

128 

1 

Tarbell,*  119 

2 

Crosby,  440 

129 

130 

«     », 

131 

1 

>,     »> 

2 

Tarbell,*  119 

3 

Tracy,  79 

132 

1 

"    " 

2 

82 

133 

83 

134 

1 

Rankin,  106 

2 

Century  II,  262 

135 

1 

"  358 

2,3 

"  360 

4 

"  361 

136 

i-3 

Lamon,  399 

137 

1-3 

,,    »> 

4 

Century  XI,  104 

138 

III,  16 

2 

Pol.  D.,  14 

139 

„   ,,  ,, 

140 

»,   ,,  >> 

141 

»  »     » 

142 

1 

»      »     » 

2,3 

Tracy,  89 

143 

I 

"    " 

2 

Pol.  D.,  54 

144 

»»   »,  » 

145 

>,  t,     »> 

146 

1 

Tarbell,*  129 

2 

Tracy,  90 

3 

Pol.  D.,  64 

147 

1-3 

"   "  65 

148 

1 

"   "  66 

2 

Century  HI,  197 

3 

Tarbell,*  129 

149 

1.2 

Tracy,  92 

150 

Pol.  D.,  73 

151 

»,   »,  ,, 

152 

»   „  ,» 

153 

1,2 

»»   ,,  >, 

3,4 

Tarbell  II,  94 

154 

1-8 

Pol.  D.,  87 

155 

»»   »j  >, 

156 

>»   ,>  » 

157 

»J      »     ?> 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

158 

Pol.  D 

,  S7 

159 

I 

Tarbell, 

*   130 

2 

<?entury 

HI,  349 

3 

Weik, 

233 

4,5 

Pol.  b. 

,  118 

l6o 

„   „ 

" 

l6l 

1-6 

»   ,» 

„ 

7 

»   » 

136 

l62 

1,2 

>,   »> 

163 

»>   », 

136 

164 

>,   „ 

156 

165 

>,   »» 

y> 

166 

1 

,,   » 

,, 

2 

Century 

IV,  2H 

3,4 

" 

"  201 

167 

1 

>, 

»   » 

2 

Pol.  D. 

185 

168 

"   " 

211 

169 

1 

»,   ,, 

224 

2,3 

„   „ 

225 

170 

1 

>,   >» 

» 

2,3 

„ 

234 

171 

1,2 

"   " 

235 

172 

,,   », 

>» 

1/3 

1,2 

Tracy, 

93 

3,4 

Barton 

I,  400 

3,4 

,, 

"  403 

'74 

1 

Putnam 

V,  17 

2 

Tracy, 

95 

175 

1,2 

Century 

V,  95 

3 

»» 

XI,  11: 

4 

M 

IX,  114 

5 

Tracy, 

97 

176 

1 

"    ] 

31 

177 

1 

Weik, 

3 

2 

Tracy, 

99 

3 

' 

100 

4 

>> 

101 

178 

1 

,, 

103 

2 

Lamgn, 

422 

3-5 

Tracy, 

105 

6 

Lamon, 

421 

179 

i-4 

Putnam 

V,  24 

180 

1 

Tracy, 

107 

181 

1 

Century 

V,  127 

2,3 

Putnam 

V,  26 

182 

1 

Pa.  His 

.  Soc.  IV,  53 

183 

1 

Tracy, 

112 

2,3 

Century 

V,  131 

184 

1 

" 

"  136 

185 

1 

», 

j,   j» 

2 

Tarbell, 

137 

3 

Tracy, 

116 

4 

Pol.  D. 

255  . 

186 

>>   ,, 

„ 

m 

1-3 

Lamon, 

423 

4 

Tracy, 

116 

476 

TABLE    O 

F     SC 

)UR 

CES 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

187 

5 

Century   V,   257 

210 

3 

Putnam    V,    196 

6 

"     281 

4 

Weed  II,  310 

188 

I 

Putnam  V,  117 

211 

1 

>»            >r          ;» 

2,3 

"     1 17-120 

2-4 

Century  XI,  115 

4 

Tracy,    121 

5 

Tracy,    172 

189 

1,2 

Century   XI,   115 

212 

1 

Putnam  V,  197 

I90 

Tracy,    123 

2 

"    198 

191 

>i          » 

3 

Tracy,    173 

192 

1 

Putnam  V,  120 
Century  V,   292 

213 

1,2 

»           » 

2 

3 

Putnam  V,  200 

3 

Rankin,   178-179 

4 

Warden,   364 

4 

182 

5 

Century  VI,  90 

193 

1-3 

Lamon,  432 

214 

1 

Tarbell,*  214 

194 

1 

»          }t 

2,3 

Tarbell  II,  201 

2 

"         441 

215 

1,2 

Century   VI,   97 

3 

Putnam  V,  156 

3 

"      91 

195 

1 

„          »      >> 

4 

Seward  I,  492 

2,3 

Tracy,    135 

2l6 

1 

>>        t,     >> 

4 

136 

2 

Tracy,    173 

I96 

1 

Century   VI,   7 

3 

Century  VI,  92 

2 

Tracy,    137 

217 

i-3 

}>          >>      >» 

197 

I 

,,           >> 

4 

Seward  V,  493 

2-4 

"         138 

218 

1 

»         ,»      » 

198 

1-4 

Lamon,  441 

2 

Century  VI,  98 

5 

Tracy,    141 

3,4 

Tracy,    175 

199 

i-4 

142 

219 

i-3 

Weed   II,  324 

5,6 

147 

4-6 

Weik,    299 

200 

1 

Tracy,    146 

220 

1 

Lamon,    506 

2 

Lamon,    446 

2 

M.   M.,    15 

3 

Rankin,    208-209 

221 

,,      >>       ,, 

201 

1 

Lamon,   453 

222 

1 

Putnam  V,  208 

2 

Warden,   364 

2 

Lamon,    509 

3 

Tarbell,    133 

223 

1 

M.    M.,   18 

202 

1-3 

Tracy,    149 

2 

Lamon,    509 

4,5 

153 

224 

1 

Century  VI,  130 

6 

Godwin   II,    143 

2 

Putnam  V,  224 

203 

1,2 

Century   VI,  43 

3 

M.   M.,  23 

3,4 

Putnam  V,  186 

4 

"       "     24 

5,6 

"    187 

225 

1 

„       >,      ,, 

204 

1 

Tracy,    157 

226 

1-4 

Tarbell  II,  213 

2 

Lamon,    507 

5,6 

"    214 

3 

Weed  II,  297 

227 

1 

M.   M.,  33 

4 

Tracy,    164 

2 

"    ;;   35 

5 

Century,  VI,  60 

228 

1 

*    "   36 

205 

1 

H.  &  W.  Ill,  487 

229 

1-4 

Lamon,   531 

2,3 

Tracy,    166 

230 

"         532 

4,5 

Century  VI,  64 

231 

1-4 

"         536 

6 

Tarbell,*    135 

5 

Putnam  V,  267 

206 

1 

Tarbell    II,    198 

232 

1,2 

Century    XI,    116 

207 

1,2 

Tracy,    167 

3 

Century   VI,    118 

3 

Putnam  V,  184 

233 

i-4 

,,           ,,       t, 

4 

Tracy,     168 

5 

O.  R.  I,  I,  196 

208 

I 

>>           » 

234 

1 

Seward  I,  525 

2 

Century  VI,  74 

2,3 

Century    VI,   225 

209 

I 

Tracy,    170 

235 

1 

O.  R.  I,  I,  226 

2,3 

Century  VI,  76 

2,3 

Tarbell,*    136 

2IO 

I 

,,           »      )> 

4 

Putnam  V,  280 

236 


TABLE     OF     SOURCES 


477 


PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

237 

i-3 

N.  R.  I,  IV,  108 

260 

2 

0.  R.  I,  LII,  I,  101 

4 

O.  R.  I,  I,  229 

26l 

I 

j,  „  ,,  »   »•  » 

5 

Century  VI,  238 

2 

"  "  "  LI  "  497 

6 

O.  R.  Ill,  I,  312 

3 

Century  VII,  8 

238 

W     ,J     J>    »     » 

4 

O.  R.  I,  III,  553 

239 

i-5 

Century  VI,  239 

262 

»  »  >>  »   »> 

24O 

1 

„     „   ,, 

263 

i-4 

"  "  "  V,  639 

2-4 

"  241 

264 

1 

Tarbell  III,  72 

5 

Tracy,  178 

2 

Century  XI,  120 

6 

"    179 

265 

1 

>,     »,   »» 

24I 

i-4 

a          >> 

2 

Curtis,  243 

5 

M.  M.,  48 

266 

O.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  6 

242 

1,2 

O.  R.  Ill,  I,  67 

267 

"  "  III,  I,  718-719 

3,4 

„  „   „  „  gg 

268 

1-4 

»  »  „  >»  »  » 

243 

1 

»     »   »  »  >» 

5 

Tracy,  199 

2,3 

Crosby,  III 

269 

1 

O.  R.  I,  VII,  524 

244 

I 

Tarbell  III,  38 

2,3 

»   "  "  LIII,  511 

2 

Century  VI,  253 

270 

1 

»   »   »  VIJ>  526 

3 

IV,  152 

2 

"   "   "    "    926 

4 

Hay  Ms.  I,  45 

3 

"   "   II,  I,  90O 

5 

Putnam  V,  290 

271 

1 

>»   >>   ,,   >»   »> 

245 

1 

>,    ,,  t) 

2 

"  "  I,  VII,  535 

2 

0.  R.  I,  LI,  I,  337 

3 

n      "  "   "   533 

3-5 

Century  VI,  260 

4-6 

Century  VII,  79 

246 

1,2 

Crawford,  420 

272 

1-4 

Barton  II,  108 

3 

O.  R.  Ill,  I,  161 

5,6 

0.  R.  I,  VII,  928 

4 

Century  VI,  269 

273 

1-3 

McC.  Rept.,  42 

247 

1 

"   273 

4 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152,  9 

2,3 

McCabe,  348 

274 

1-7 

J,    >»    ,7     J,    ,»        ',     " 

4 

O.  R.  Ill,  I,  226 

8 

H.  &  W.  Ill,  500 

5 

Putnam  V,  309 

9 

Putnam  V,  427 

248 

i-4 

Century  VI,  290 

275 

1-4 

,,    >,   ,» 

5 

O.  R.  II,  IT,  19 

5 

O.  R.  I,  VII,  624 

6 

O.  R.  Ill,  I,  314 

276 

1 

,,  „  »,   »,   » 

249 

„  >>  »     tt     " 

2-4 

M.  M.,  100 

250 

if  2 

>,  >,  a     ,,  ,» 

277 

1 

3 

Century  VI,  325 

2 

Gorham  I,  348 

4 

"   329 

3 

McC.  Rept.,  58 

251 

i-5 

Putnam  V,  342 

278 

1 

,,    >>    » 

252 

i-4 

,,    ,,   ,, 

2,3 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152,11 

5,6 

"  343 

4,5 

Century  VII,  119 

7 
8 

O.  R.  I,  II,  156 

Century  VI,  340 

279 

1 
2 

"   126 

253 

1 

Tracy,  192 

3,4 

McC.  Rept.,  125 

2-4 
1 

O.  R.  Ill,  I,  405 

280 

i-3 

Century  VII,  135 

254 

j,  }>      >>  >>  >, 

4 

McC.  Rept.  135 

2 

"  »   "  »  413 

28l 

1 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1 1 52, 

255 

U 

"  "  I,  HI,  443 
M.  M.,  73 

2 

319 
O.  R.  II,  I,  276 

256 

1 

j,   „   ,, 

3,4 

M.  M.,  102 

2-4 
1 

0.  TL   I,  III,  469 

5 

,, 

257 

282 

1 

O.  R.  I,  LIII,  521 

2 

Century  VI,  352 

2,3 

M.  M.,  105 

3 

O.  R.  I,  III,  485 

283 

li  2 

O.  R.  II,  III,  508 

4 

Putnam  VTI,  399 

3 

Century  VI,  153 

258 
259 

1 

Putnam  V,  362 

284 

4 
1,2 

0.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  154 
,,   j,  >,   ,,   )y       »> 

260 

i 

Century  VII,  1 

3 

Warden,  434 

478 


TABLE    OF     SOURCES 


PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

285 

.1-4 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152, 

306 

2,3 

0.  R.  I,  LIII,  529 

273 

307 

I 

•,    „   ,»     ;,      •> 

5-7 

M.  M.,  106 

2 

Century  VII,  299 

286 

,,  >»   »» 

3 

Raymond,  771 

287 

1-3 

>>  »>   »> 

4 

324 

4,5 

"  "   110 

308 

505 

288 

i,2 

>}     >,   >> 

309 

1-7 

253 

3 

0.  R.  I,  XII,  I,  626 

310 

i-4 

»»      ,, 

4 

»  "  "   "  »   643 

5 

0.  R.  I,  LIII,  524 

5 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152, 

311 

1 

,,  »,  ,}   1,    ,, 

329 

2 

McC.  Rept.  176 

289 

1 

C  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1 1 52, 

3 

Hay. 

274 

312 

1 

O.  R.  I,  XIX,  II,  276 

2 

O.  R.  I,  X,  666 

2 

Raymond,  254 

3 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152, 

313 

1-4 

,»      ,» 

330 

5 

O.  R.  I,  XVI,  II,  517 

290 

1 

McC.  Rept.,  102 

6 

McC.  Rept.,  373 

2 

O.  R.  I,  XII,  I,  644 

7,8 

O.  R.  I,  XIX,  II,  310 

3 

"    "     »   »   »  645 

314 

1 

Carpenter,  22 

4,5 

"  "  "  "   III,  267 

2 

Tarbell  III,  T20 

291 

1-4 

"  "  "  XI,  "  205 

315 

1-3 

Raymond,  257 

5 

McC.  Rept.,  113 

316 

1,2 

Putnam  VI,  148 

6 

O.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  216 

317 

1 

149 

292 

1 

»  „  »,   >,   »   » 

2 

Century  VIII,  51 

2 

"  "  "  XII,  I,  542 

3 

52 

3 

Sen.  Docs.  S.  N.  11 22, 

3l8 

1 

„   1    XI'  T24 

No.  57,  1 

2 

McC.  Rept.,  219 

4 

Century  VII,  220 

3,4 

Raymond,  319 

293 

I,2 

O.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  234 

319 

1,2 

" 

3 

"  "  "  "  I,  661 

3 

Century  VIII,  61 

294 

1 

"  "    "  "  III,  236 

320 

1 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152, 

2-4 

"  "  "  XII,  I,  169 

547 

295 

1-3 

"  "  "  XI,  III,  259 

2 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1152, 

4 

>,    »   „    »     »    27I 

549 

296 

1,2 

»>   »»   ,,    »l     >,     }> 

3 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1 152, 

3 

"  "  "  "  "    269 

556 

297 

i,2 

"    "  III,  II,  179 

4 

C.  C.  W„  S.  N.  1152, 

3 

"  "  L  XI,  III,  270 

565 

298 

1 

"  "  •'  "       "   276 

5 

R.  R.  VI,  181 

2 

»      "     n     "       "   280 

321 

1 

Raymond,  486 

3 

"  "    III,  II,  187 

2 

Century  VIII,  80 

299 

1 

McC.  Rept.,  141 

3 

Putnam  VI,  174 

2-4 

O.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  286 

322 

1 

Century  VIII,  88 

5 

"  "    III,  II,  200 

2 

Raymond,  351 

300 

1 

"  "  I,  XI,  III,  291 

323 

352 

2,3 

"     "  III,  II,  200 

324 

353 

4-6 

McC.  Rept.,  143 

O.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  314 

325 

3§4 

301 

1 

326 

360 

2,3 

Raymond,  235 

327 

1 

,,     ,, 

302 

„      >) 

2 

Sen.  Docs.  S.  N.  1149, 

303 

1 

Carpenter,  20 

No.  7 

2 

O.  R.  I,  XI,  III,  319 

328 

Raymond,  341 

304 

1 

"  "  "   "   "      321 

329 

1 

,,     »» 

2 

Raymond,  238 

2 

0.  R.  I,  XXII,  836 

3 

Putnam  VI,  95 

3-7 

Barton  II,  156 

4 

Carpenter,  20 

330 

i-4 

Welles  I,  201 

305 

1 

»,     ,» 

5 

Warden,  508 

2 

Raymond,  331 

6,7 

Century  VIII,  148 

306 

I 

»     f> 

8 

Tarbell,*  153 

TABLE     OF     SOURCES 


479 


PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

330 

9 

O.   R.   I,   XXI,   67 

350 

I 

0.  R.  I,  XXII,  II,  281 

33* 

I 

Stine,  294 

2 

Putnam  VI,  297 

2 

Barton  II,  399 

3 

O.  R.  I,  XXIII,  II,  342 

332 

„          ,,       „ 

4 

"    "   "  XXIV,  III,  342 

333 

O.  R.  Ill,  III,  2 

351 

1 

Tarbell,*   161 

334 

I 

"     "     I,   XXI,  940 

2 

Tracy,    224 

2 

"     "    XXII,  II,  6 

352 

1 

»,           », 

335 

I 

"     "    I,  XXII,  II,  17 

2,3 

0.  R.  I,  XXII,  II,  293 

336 

I 

„     ,,    »>       »>         >,    >» 

353 

1 

"    "    "  XXIII,    "    369 

2 

Tarbell,*    154 
Century    VIII,    181 

2 

"   "  11,  v,  717 

3 

3 

"   "  III,  III,  252 

337 

1 

"        186 

4 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

2,3 

Raymond,  496 

^249 

338 

"              " 

354 

1,2 

TarDell,*  164 

339 

I 

0.  R.  I,   XII,   II,  512 

3 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

2-4 

"     "    "   XXI,   1004 

255 

5 

"     "    "   XXV,  II,  4 

4 

Tarbell  *   164 

340 

1 

Weed  II,  433 

5,6 

Raymond,  387 

2-5 

Raymond,  498 

355 

391 

6 

Tracy,    221 

356 

,,             „ 

34i 

1,2 

Raymond,  500 

357 

1 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

3 

Sen.  Docs.  S.  N.  1149, 

259 

No.  49 

2 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

4 

0.   R.   Ill,    III,  60 

260 

5 

Century   VIII,   229 

3 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

342 

1 

Putnam  VI,  267 

261 

2 

Century   VIII,   230 

358 

1 

0.  R.  I,  LI,  I,  55 

343 

1,2 

Raymond,   704 

2 

Tarbell,*   165 

3 

O.    R.    Ill,    III,    103 

3 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

4.5 

"      "       "        "      io5 

264 

344 

1,2 

,,        ,,        ,,        ,,        ,, 

4,5 

0.   R.   Ill,   III,  360 

3 

"      "     I,    XIV,   435 

359 

i-4 

Century    VIII,    320 

345 

1 

'    LI,    I,    1000 

360 

1 

Tarbell,*    166 

2,3 

Century    VIII,    243 
N.  R.   I,  XIV,   132 

2 

O.    R.    Ill,    III,    3/T 

4,5 

3-4 

C.  C.  W,  S.  N.   1212, 

346 

1 

O.  R.  I,  XXV,  II,  214 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

163 

2 

5 

O.   R.   I,   XXVII,   III, 

221 

204 

3 

Century   VIII,    256 

6 

C.   C.  W.,   S.   N.  1212, 

347 

1 

0.  R.  I,  XXV,  II,  372 

279 

2 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

7 

0.  R.  I,  XXII,  II,  311 

225 

361 

O.   R.   I,  XXVII,   III, 

3,4 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

295 

226 

2 

Warden   I,   30 

5 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

3,4 

Raymond,   394 

227 

362 

1,2 

397 

6 

0.  R.  I,  XXV,  II,  438 

363 

»,              ,, 

348 

1 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

364 

1 

398 

143 

2 

Century    IX,     10 

2 

0.  R.  I,  XXV,  II,  455 

3 

O.   R.  I,  XXVII,  III, 

349 

1 

C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 

436 

217 

365 

1 

O.   R.  I,  XXVII,  III, 

2 
3 

Tarbell,   160 
C.  C.  W.,  S.  N.  1212, 
238 

2 
3 

436 
Tarbell,*   170 
Century    IX,    15 

4 

Raymond,   411 

4 

C.  C.  W,  S.  N.  1212, 
150 

5 

O.   R.  I,  XXVII,  III, 

567 

480 

TABLE     OF 

SOURCES 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

366 

I 

O.  R.  I,  XXVII,  III, 

379 

4 

Century    VIII,    142 

567 

380 

1 

0.  R.  I,  XXII,  II,  586 

2 

O.    R.    I.,    XXVII,    I, 

2 

"     "    HI,    III,   859 

83 

381 

i-3 

»          »»              „                   „   '             ,, 

3 

O.    R,    I.,    XXVII,   I, 

4 

"     "    I,  XXX,  IV,  79 

0.  \.  I,  XXVII,  III, 

5 

"     "    "  XXII,  II,  604 

4 

382 

„     1,     „        „    '    ,,       ,, 

612 

383 

1 

"    "    "XXX,  IV,  306 

3^7 

1,2 

0.  R.  I,  XXVII,  III, 

2 

Tarbell,*    187 

645 

3 

Weed   II,  440 

3 

O.   R.   I,   LII,   406 

4 

Tarbell,*    189 

4 

"     "     "    XXVII,    II, 

5 

O.    R.    Ill,    III,   892 

366 

384 

1 

»        „         „            ,,            ,, 

368 

1,2 

Century  IX,  28 

2 

Century   VIII,    316 

3 

O.    R.    Ill,    III,   492 

3-5 

O.    R.    I,    XXIX,    II, 

369 

1 

,,          ,,                  >,                 »J                 ,, 

375 

2 

Putnam  VI,  362 

385 

1 

0.    R.    I,    XXIX,    II, 

3 

Century    IX,    37 

375 

4 

"      40 

2 

Century    IX,    181 

5 

"      41 

3 

Tarbell,*    191 

370 

1 

,,            »       ,, 

4 

Raymond,   474 

2 

Putnam  VI,  364 

5 

Putnam    VII,    14 

3-8 

N.   R.   II,   I,  410 

386 

1 

Tarbell,*  194 

371 

1 

Tarbell,*   172 

2-4 

Century   IX,  203 

2,3 

0.    R.    II,   VI,    163 

5 

Tarbell,*    195 
Century    IX,   206 

4 

"     "     I,    XXIV,   III, 

6 

567 

7 

Warden,    555 

5 

Century    IX,    56 
O.   R.   HI    III,   635 

8 

Raymond,   412 

372 

1-3 

387 

1 

Century  IX,  210 

4 

Century    IX,    61 

2,3 

,,          ,,       „ 

373 

1,2 

Putnam  VI,  378 

388 

1 

"    212 

3 

O.  R.   I,  LII,   438 

2,3 

Tarbell,*    196 

4 

Century    IX,    84 

4 

Century  IX,  213 

?74 

1 

"            "      " 

5 

Tarbell,*    197 

2-5 

Curtis,    247 

6 

Tarbell,*    199 

6 

Tarbell,*    174 

389 

1 

Raymond,  420 

7 

O.    R.    Ill,    III,    733 

2-4 

0.    R.    II,    VI,    650 

375 

1 

Century  IX,  108 

390 

,,       ,,      ,,       ,,        „ 

2 

O.    R.    I,    XXX,    III, 

391 

1 

,,       ,,      ,,       ,,        ,, 

399 

2 

''    ;;  in,  in,  1152 

376 

1 

O.   R.   Ill,   III,   789 

392 

2 

"      "      "       "      817 

393 

3 

"      "     I,    XXIX,    II, 

394 

1 

"     "  I,  XXXI,  II,  51 

187 

O.  R.  I,  XXIX,  II,  7 

2,3 

Tarbell,*    201 

4 

395 

4 
1 

Century   IX,   264 
Tracy,  237 

377 
378 

1, 2 

3,4 

5 

3 

Tarbell,*    181 

O.  R.  I,  XXX,  I,  148 

"     "     »       »        "    146 
"     "    "        "        "   161 

396 

397 

1 

2,3 

4 
1-3 

Century  IX,  279 
Raymond,  481 
Century   IX,  287 

4 

0.    R.    I,    XXX,    III, 

791 

398 

4 
1 
2 

292 

O.    R.   Ill,  IV,  75 

„      ,,      „       »      5g> 

379 

1 

0.    R.    I,    XXX,    III, 

3 

Century    IX,   303 

811 

4 

Raymond,   492 

2 

Tarbell,*    182 

399 

1 

Century   X,    T2 

3 

O.    R.    I,    XXX,    III, 

400 

1 

O.   R.   Ill,   IV,   133 

905 

2 

"     »      »       "      141 

TABLE    OF 

SOUR 

PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

PAR. 

400 

3 

Schuckers,   501 

419 

2 

401 

1,2 

„              , 

3 

Carpenter,    130 

3,4 

4 

Century  X,  27 

420 

I 

402 

1 

Warden,  575 

2 

2 

Century   X,  30 

3 

3,4 

Raymond,  476 

4 

403 

1 

489 

421 

1 

2 

Putnam  VII,   in 

2 

3 

Crosby,   275 

404 

i-3 
4 

Raymond,  498 

Century   X,    55 

O.  R.  I,  XXVII,  13 

3 

5 

422 

1,2 

405 

1 

Putnam   VII,   115 

423 

1 

2 

Raymond,  767 

2,3 

406 

1 

j,              >, 

4 

2 

Putnam   VII,    119 

5,6 

3 

Schuckers,   513 

424 

1 

4 

Raymond,  502 

2 

407 

I 

Tarbell,*  219 

3,4 

2 

Century  X,  89 

425 

1 

3 

Raymond,  523 

2 

408 

1,2 

,»             ,» 

3-6 

3 

O.    R.    I,    XXXVIII, 
IV,  25 

426 

1 

2,3 

4 

O.  R.  I,  XXXVI,  II, 
560 

4 

5 

5 

Raymond,  526 

427 

1 

409 

1 

"             " 

2 

2 

Century   X,  98 

428 

1,2 

3,4 

Raymond,  618 

3-7 

410 

1 
2 

0.  R.  Ill,  IV,  388 

Raymond,   553 

8 

411 

1 

Putnam  VII,  146 

429 

1 

2 

Raymond,  559 

430 

1 

3 

560 

2 

412 

1 

,,             „ 

3,4 

2 

O.  R.  Ill,  IV,  429 

5 

3 

Raymond,  504 

431 

1 

413 

1 

Tarbell,*  225 

2 

2-5 

Century   X,    132 

3-5 

6 

Putnam    VII,    158 

6 

7-9 

Century    X,    135 

432 

1 

414 

1 

" 

2,3 

2,3 

Raymond,   563 

433 

1 

4 

Warden,    611-613 

2 

415 

1 

,,            »      ,, 

3,4 

2 

0.  R.  Ill,  IV,  460 

5 

3 

Schuckers,    509 

434 

1 

416 

1-9 

Century  IX,   120 

2 

10-14  Barton  II,  294 

435 

1 

4T7 

1-4 

O.   R.  Ill,   IV,  477 

2-5 

418 

1 

"     "      "       "     486 

436 

1-5 

2 

Putnam  VII,  172 

6 

3 

O.  R.  I,  XXXVII,  II, 

437 

1 

155 

438 

!,2 

419 

1 

0.  R.  I,  XXXVII,  n5 
191 

3 

4 

:es  '481 

SOURCE 

O.  R.  I,  XXXVII,  II, 

221 

Century  X,  157 

"    158 

O.  R.   Ill,  IV,   496 
„     „      „       »     50I 

«  »  «  H  5Q3 

Century   X,   170 

O.  R.  I,  XXXVII,  II, 

444 
O.  R.  I,  XXXVII,  II, 

582 

Barton  II,  293 
„        ,»      „ 

Tarbell*    277 

O.  R.  II,  VII,  567 

Century    X,    184 

"     185 

O.  R.  I,  XLII,  II,  167 

Putnam   VII,    188 

Raymond,  588 

O.  R.  I,  XLII,  II,  243 

Century    X,    194 
„  ,»        » 

Crosby,   316 
Tarbell,*    228 
Century  X,  202 

"    203 

"    204 
O.  R.  Ill,  IV,  680 
Reminiscences,  398 
O.  R.  I,  XXXIX,  II, 

339 
Raymond,  616 
,,  ,, 

Century  X,  219 
Putnam   VII,    205 
H.   &  W.   Ill,  557 
Century  X,   226 
O.  R.  I,  XLIII,  I,  61 
Century  X,  227 
O.   R.    Ill,   IV,   740 
Raymond,  602 
Putnam   VII,   210 
Century  X,  234 
O.  R.  I,  XLII,  II,  1090 
Raymond,  609 
O.  R.  Ill,  IV,  788 
Century   IX,   376 
Raymond,  613 
Century   IX,  377 
Raymond,  613 
Barton  II,  304 
O.  R.  I,  XLI,  IV,  555 
Raymond,  616 
615 
Tracy,    248 
Raymond,  634 


482 


TABLE     OF     SOURCES 


PAGE 

PAR. 

SOURCE 

PAGE 

P.AR. 

SOURCE 

439 

I 

Tracy,  217 

456 

6 

0.    R. 

I,    XLVI, 

HI, 

440 

1-3 

"          " 

332 

4 

Raymond,  620 

457 

1-4 

O.    R. 

I,    XLVI, 

III, 

5 

Century  X,  312 

332 

441 

I|2 

C.  C.  W.  Supp.  Pt.  I 

5 

Barton 

II,  398 

297 

6 

0.   R. 

I,    XLVI, 

HI, 

442 

1-4 

Raymond,   619 

392 

5 

Tarbell*    240 

7 

0.   R. 

I,    XLVI, 

III, 

6 

Carpenter,  190 

0.  R.  I,  XLVI,  II, 

395 

443 

1 

506 

8 

O.    R. 

I,    XLVI, 

HI, 

2 

Putnam  VII,  284 

447 

3 

0.  R.  I.  XLVI,  II, 

506 

458 

1 

0.   R. 

I,    XLVI, 

III, 

444 

1 

507 

446 

2-6 

»       a     »           »             a 

5p9 

2 

0.    R. 

I,   XLVI, 

III, 

445 

1-4 

u       >i      a            it             a 

449 

5 

Century   IX,  354 

3 

O.   R. 

I,    XLVI, 

III, 

6-8 

O.  R.  I,  XLVI,  II, 

5ii 

508 

446 

1 
2,3 

Tarbell   II,  211 
Carpenter,    210 

4 

O.    R. 

509 

I,   XLVI, 

III, 

447 

1 

a                   a 

5 

Curtis, 

300 

2 

Century   IX,  356 

6 

Century   XI,  71 

3 

XI,    1 

459 

i-4 

a 

,>      >t 

448 

1-3 

4 

"      2 
"      3 

5 

O.   R. 

593 

I,    XLVI, 

HI, 

5 

Raymond    664 

460 

1 

O.    R. 

I,    XLVI, 

III, 

449 

1,2 

Putnam    VII,    298 

593 

3 

0.    R.    I,    XLVII1 

,    I, 

2 

C.  C.  W..  S.  N. 

1212, 

825 

521 

450 

4,5 

1 

2 

Century   XI,   38 
O.  R.  I,  XLVI,  II, 
Raymond,   670 

802 

461 

3 

1 

2,3 

Tarbell,*    255 
Tarbell    II,    231 
Raymond,  686 

451 

462 

u 

t> 

452 

1 

2,3 

671 

Century   XI,  47 

463 
464 

465 

a 
a 

687 
» 

453 
454 

455 

1 

2,3 

I 

2,3 

1-8 

0.  R.  I,  XLVI,  II, 
Weed   II,  449 

a             t>          ,, 

Century  XI,   55 
Barton  II,  406 

900 

1 

2 
3 

0.   R.    I,   XLVI, 

724 
Recollections,   116 
0.    R.    I,    XLVI, 

HI, 
HI, 

9 

Putnam  VII,  339 

725 

10 

0.    R.    I,    XLVI, 
50 

III, 

466 

1 

0.   R. 

725 

I,    XLVI, 

HI, 

456 

1 

O.    R.    I,    XLVI, 

III, 

2,3 

Recollections.    249 

86 

467 

1,2 

,: 

>               „ 

2-4 

0.    R.    I,    XLVI, 
109 

III, 

468 

3,4 
1-6 

Barton 

II,  339 

5 

0.    R.    I,    XLVI, 

III, 

7 

Tarbell 

II.   MS 

280 

8 

Putnam    VII,   371 

INDEX 


INDEX 


Alabama 

Conferderate    States    of    America 

formed,  219 
ports  blockaded,  242 
secession  of,  217 
war  declared,  242 
Albany,  New  York 

resolutions      from      meeting      at, 
Lincoln's  reply,  354-357 
Alton 
debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln, 168 
American   Colonization   Society,  98 
Anderson,  Robert   (Major) 
commander,  Fort   Sumter 
holding  of  fort,  233,  237,  239 
Andrew    (Governor) 
concerning    colored    migration    to 
Massachusetts,  399 
Antietam-Sharpsburg,  Battle  of,  314 
Arkansas 
discord  in  government,  398 
emancipation      proclamation      ap- 
plicable, 371 
representatives      excluded      from 
Congress,  415 
Armtrong  case,    131,    134 
Arnold,  Isaac  N., 
change  in  generals  demanded  by, 

35i 
Ashbury,  Henry 

Lincoln's     forecast     of     Douglas 
policy,  148,  163 
Baltimore 

Massachusetts    regiment    attacked 

by  mob,  243 
police  commissioners  arrested,  252 
Banks,  N.  P.  (General) 
advance    on    Shenandoah    Valley, 

292^ 
suggestions  for  Louisiana  govern- 
ment, 371 
Baptist   Delegation   to    Washington, 

^     ,   409 
Battles 

see  also,  Civil  War 

Antietam-Sharpsburg,  314 

Bull  Run,  251. 

Chancellorsville,  347 

Chattanooga,  388 

Chickamauga,  377 


Battles,  con't. 

Fort  Donelson,  275 

Fredericksburg,  329,  330 

Gettysburg,  365 

Malvern  Hill,  298 

Manassas,  311 

Petersburg,  457 

Seven     Days,    before     Richmond, 

295 
Seven  Pines  or  Fair  Oaks,  291 
Bennett,  James  Gordon,  449 
Berry,  William  F.,  11 
Bile,  Earl 

Marshal  for  Northern  District  of 
Ohio,  241 
Birchard,  M., 
reply  to  resolutions  at  Ohio  Con- 
vention, 361-364 
Birthplace  of   Lincoln,  1 
Black   Hawk  War 

Lincoln  a  captain,  9 
Blair,   Frank   (General) 

Lincoln's  wish  that  he  sit  in  Con- 
gress, 385 
Blair    (Postmaster-General) 

concerning      disabled      men      and 

>  families,  370 
resignation  accepted,  432 
Bliss,  W.  S.  (Colonel) 
offer   of   "Loyal   Brigade  of    the 
North,"  359 
Boats 

cargo    loads   taken   down    Missis- 
sippi, 6,  7 
ferry  across  Ohio 

operated  by  Lincoln,  6 
invention     of     buoyant    chambers 
for,  87 
Boker,  George  H.,  385 
Books,  influential 
see  also,  Reading  of  Lincoln 
Blackstone's,    Commentaries,    12 
for  study  of  law,  175 
Weems',  Life  of  Washington,  5 
Boston 

invitation  to  attend  festival,   179 
Britton,  Isaac  S.,  53 
Brooklyn 

Lincoln  invited  to  speak,  192 
Brooks   (General) 
commander,  Pittsburgh,  359 


485 


*86 


INDEX 


Brown,  John,  193-194 
Browning,  O.  H.   (Mrs.) 

letter  to,  29 
Bryant,  William  Cullen 

removal  of  Mr.  Henderson,  413 
Buchanan,  James 
presidential  campaign 
slavery  issue,  124 
Buckner,   S.   B.    (General),  250 
Buell,  D.  C.   (General) 

suggested  activities,  270,  271,  272 
Bull   Run,  Battle  of 
Federal  defeat,  251 
Burbridge,  S.  G.   (General) 

concerning  Mrs.  Helm,  423 
Burnside,  A.  E.    (General) 
Army  of   Potomac 
commander,  320 
relieved   from  command,  339 
letter  to,  regarding  arrest  of  Val- 

landigham,  353 
ordered  to  Chattanooga,  378 
Business  enterprises 
store 

Berry  and  Lincoln,  proprietors, 

11 
clerk  at  New  Salem,  8 
surveying,    13 
Cabinet  of   Lincoln 

Cameron's  resignation,  271 
Chase,  Salmon  P., 

resignation  accepted,  415 
resignation   tendered,   330 
Emancipation    Proclamation,    304, 

314 
memorandum  of   prior  date  read, 

concerning   election,  436 
proposed    appointments,    212,    213, 

214,  215,  218,  229 
Senators  ask  dismissal  of,  329 
Seward,  William  H., 
appointment,  232 
office  offered  to,  209 
resignation  tendered,  330 
Cameron,   Simon 
Cabinet 
nomination,  213,  215 
resignation,  271 
Canisius,   Theodore 
editor,  Staats  Anzeiger,   182 
German  newspaper  purchased  from 

Lincoln,  209 
letter   to,  naturalized  citizen  pro- 
vision, 181 
Capital  and  labor 
question    in    relation    to    issue    of 

the  war,  268 
slavery,  application  shown,  186 
Cartwright,  Peter  (Reverend),  57 


Central  America 
Lincoln's     plan     for     colony     of 
negroes  at,  308 
Chancellorsville,   Battle  of,  347 
Chandler  (Senator),  416 
Chaplains 

appointment  to  hospitals,  261 
Charleston 
debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln, 162-166 
instructions    to    Hunter    and    Du 
Pont,  345 
Chase,    Salmon    P.,   201 

attempt   to    supplant    Lincoln,  384 

Pomeroy  Circular,  401,  402 
Chief  Justice,   Supreme  Court, 
appointment,  439 
nomination,  406 
Emancipation     Proclamation,     ap- 
plication of,  375 
fugitive    slave    law    enforcement, 

182 
Secretary  of  Treasury 
resignation  accepted,  415 
resignation  tendered,  330 
Chattanooga 
Battle  of,  388 
Rosecrans  in  vicinity,  377 
Chew,  Henry,  166 
Chew,  R.  S., 
ordered  to  Fort  Sumter  with  pro- 
visions, 240 
Chicago 
speeches  of  Douglas  and  Lincoln, 
138 
Chickamauga,  Battle  of,  377 
Churches 
administration  independent  of  the 

Government,  335 
delegations  to   Washington,  409 
Cincinnati 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 

222 
speech  at,  185 
Citizens,  naturalized 
provision    adopted    by    Massachu- 
setts, 181 
suffrage,  180 
Civil  War 
see  also,  Battles 

conditions  for  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties, 444,  459 
governors    to    arrange    for    addi- 
tional troops,  298 
issue  of,  405,  439 
emancipation,  303 
restoration   of    Union,    and   not 

abolition,  256,  267 
Union  and  slavery,  381 


INDEX 


487 


Civil  War,  con't. 
Lee's  surrender,  460 
Lincoln's  desire   for  no  bloodshed 

as  aftermath,  467 
message   to  governors  concerning 

progress,    297 
policy  outlined 

in    connection    with    report    of 
Sumter's  bombardment,  241 
proclamation,  242 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  suspended, 
376 
Clay,  Henry 
death  of,  97 

view  of  emancipation,  153 
Cleveland 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
224 
Clinton 

speech,  "you  can  fool  all  the  peo- 
ple .  .  .,"   159 
Colfax,   Schuyler,    183 
College  of   New  Jersey 

degree  conferred  upon  Lincoln,  442 
Colonization  of  negroes 

Central  America  suggested,  308 
Vache,     return     of     discontented 
from,  398 
Colored  men 
colonization 
plans  discussed,  308 
return     of     discontented     from 
Vache,  398 
report  of   seizure  of,  at  Hender- 
son,  412 
troops    raised    along    Mississippi, 

369,  373 
use  as  soldiers,  343,  391,  392,  406 
Florida,  344 
Fortress    Monroe   and    Yorktown, 

337 
in  Rebel  Army,  454 
Columbus 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
222 
Committee  of  Thirteen,  211 
appointed,   210 

unable  to  devise   acceptable  com- 
pact,  213 
Confederate  States  of  America 
see  also,  South 
agents 

interview     with,     at     Fortress 

Monroe,   444,   445 
negotiations  with,  in  Canada,    420 
'safe  conduct'  to  Washington,  420 
Stephen's   mission   to   Washing- 
ton, 423 


Confederate     States     of      America, 
con't. 
cessation  of  hostilities  on  basis  of 

bond  issue  to  states,  447 
envoys   taken   off    British   vessel, 

264 
formed   at   Montgomery,   219 
idea    of     peace    conference    with, 

abandoned,  427 
ports  blockaded,  242 
possibility    of    European    recogni- 
tion, 303 
property  to  be  seized  for  military 

purposes,  305 
war  declared,  242 
Congress 
electoral   count  in   favor  of   Lin- 
coln,  448 
House  of   Representatives 

Lincoln      in      connection      with 
elected,  60 
nominated,    57 
term  of   office   expired,   83 
message  to,  July,    1861 

on  Right  of  Secession,  248 
message    to,    December,    1861 

Union,  primary  issue  of  war,  267 
message  to,   December,    1862 
Constitutional    amendments     re- 
garding slavery  recommended, 
322-327 
opinion  that  members  should  sup- 
port war,  341 
Senate 
election  of   Douglas,   173 
Lincoln  in  connection  with  can- 
didacy,   108,    112 
defeated,   173 
nominated,    136 
withdrawal    of    southern    mem- 
bers, 218 
slavery- 
African  slave  trade  suppression, 

292 
authority  in  relation  to,  161,  182, 
282,  416 
State  laws  in  conflict  with  those 
of,  211 
Conkling,   F.   A. 

New  York  mass-meeting,  410 
Constitution 
amendments  regarding  slavery  re- 
commended,   322-327 
framing  of,    191 
fugitive  slave   laws 

enforcement  of,  182,  211 
Proclamation  of  allegiance,  389 
proposition  for  amendment,  445 


488 


INDEX 


Contraband    intelligence    and    trade 

system   to   restrain,   382 
Conventions,  political 

see  also,  Politics 

Baltimore,  411 

danger  of   local   "platforms,"   184 

Illinois   Republican,   136 

Ohio  Democratic,  361 

Ohio  Republican 
unfortunate  "plank"  chosen,  184 
Cook,  B.  C,  148 
Cooper   Institute,   New  York 

Lincoln's  speech  at,   192-194 
receipt  of  $200.00,  198 
Corning,  Erastus 

reply  to  resolutions  at  Albany 
Vallandigham's  arrest  explained, 

354-357 
Cotton 

situation  in  south  affected  by,  440 
Cuba,   217 
Curtin,  Governor 

letter  to,  331 
Curtis,  S.  R.   (General) 
question   of    government    in    Mis- 

souri,  337 
relieved    from   command,   Depart- 
ment of   Missouri,  352 
Dana,   Charles  A.,  468 
Danenhower,    W.    W.,   240 
Davis,   Henry   Winter 

opinion  on  support  of  war  by  Con- 
gressmen,  341 
published  attack  on  President,  422 
Davis,  Jefferson 

withdrawal   from  Senate,  218 
Davis,   Walter,  87 
Debates 
Douglas   and   Lincoln 
a  plan  arranged,   146-148 
Alton,  168 
Charleston,  162-166 
Freeport,   154 
Galesburg,    167 
Jonesboro,  159 
Ottawa,  first  debate  at,  149 
Quincy,    168 
Declaration  of  Independence 

interpretation    regarding    negroes, 
129,   145 
Delahay,   Mark  W., 

letter   to,   195 
Democratic   Party 
Albany  meeting  resolutions 

Lincoln's  reply,  354-357 
Ohio  State  Convention  resolutions 
Lincoln's   reply,  361-364 
Dennison,    William 
appointed    Postmaster-General,  433 


Dennison,    William,    con't. 

Lincoln's  renommation,  414 
District  of  Columbia 
slavery  abolition  in,  282 
bill  in  House,  82 
Lincoln's  opinion,  156 
Dix,  J.  A.    (General) 

plan  for  use  of  colored  troops,  337 
Douglas,   Stephen  A., 

Buchanan,    break    with,    over   ad- 
mission of  Kansas,  132, 135, 138 
debate  with  Lincoln 
a  plan  arranged,  146-148 
Alton,   168 
Charleston,   162-166 
Freeport,  154 
Galesburg,  167 
Jonesboro,  159 
Ottawa,  first  debate  at,  149 
Quincy,   168 
desire  to  succeed  himself  as  sena- 
tor,  134 
Dred  Scott  Decision,  speech  on,    128 
elected  to   Senate,   173 
"Freeport  Doctrine,"   158 
Kansas-Nebraska    Bill    sponsored 

by,   102,  103 
policy    of,    forecast    by    Lincoln, 

148,    163 
senatorial  election,  result  forecast 

by  Lincoln,  175 
speech,   Richmond,  99 
speech    to    which    Lincoln   replied 
Chicago,  138 
Peoria,  103 
Springfield,  128 
Drama 
Lincoln's    appreciation   of    Shake- 
speare, 373 
Dred  Scott  Decision,   128,  138 
Lincoln's   opposition  to,   141    144 
new   version,    167 
question  of  reversing  decision,  168 
senatorial    issue    at    Chicago    in- 
tensified by,   138 
slave  holding  affected  by,  170, 172 
Territories  may  not  exclude  slav- 
ery,  152 
Du  Pont,  Samuel  F.    (Admiral) 
Charleston,  instructions  regarding, 

345 
Edwards,  N.  W.,  14 
Emanicipation 
see  also,  Slavery 
Border   state  Representatives 

conference  on  policy,  279,  301,  303 
compensation  plan  refused,  303 
issue  of    Civil    War,  303 
Lincoln's  plan  for,  402 


INDEX 


489 


Emancipation,  con't. 

Missouri,     query     from     General 

Schofield,  360 
Proclamation 
Arkansas,  371 
Cabinet    discussion,   304 
demanded  by  abolitionists,  312 
issue  of,  333,  337,  39 1 
question  of   application   without 

military   necessity,   375 
read  at   Cabinet  meeting,  314 
text  of,  315 
England 
Workingmen  of  Manchester 
resolutions   sent,   reply,  337,  340 
Everett,  Edward,  387 
Fair   Oaks,    Battle  of,  291 
Fairs  and   benefits   held,  403 
Ferry 

operated  by  Lincoln,  6 
Ficklin,   Orlando  B.,   164 
Field,   Maunsell   B.,  414-415 
Fischel,    A.    (Rev.   Dr.),  268 
Fishback,    W.   M. 

Arkansas  affairs,  398 
Florida 
ports  blockaded,  242 
secession    of,    216 
slaves    freed  by   Hunter,  285 

act  repudiated  by  Lincoln,  286 
war  declared,  242 
Foote,    Andrew   H., 

commander,   Powhatan,  237 
Fort  Donelson 

plans    for  holding,   275-276 
Fort  Kearney 

officers    threaten    to    move    south 
if    Republicans    win    election, 
206 
Fort  Pickens 

naval  detachment  sent,  237 
question  of   holding,  233 
S.    S.    Brooklyn,    troops    on,    233, 
238,  239 
Fort    Sumter 

bombardment   and  surrender,  241, 

242 
Chew  sent  to  take  provisions  and 
interview    Governor    Pickens, 
240 
holding  of,    favored   by  majority, 

237 
surrender  to  Confederates  advised, 

233 
Fortress   Monroe 
interview    with    agents    of    South, 

444,  445 
Forts 
question  of  holding,  233,  236 


"Fourscore    and    seven    years  .  .  .," 

Gettysburg  speech,  386 
Fox,  Gustavus   V., 

services  in  regard  to  Fort  Sumter, 
246 
Franklin,   W.  B.    (General) 

plan    for   Army  of    Potomac,  331 
Fredericksburg,   Battle  of,  329,  330 
"Free  Soil"  men,  79 
Freeport 

debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln,  154 
Freese,  J.    R.    (Doctor),   431 
Freese,  Jacob,   386 
Fremont,   John   C.    (General), 

command  at  St.  Louis,  254 

proclamation   issued   in    St.    Louis 
modified   by   Lincoln,    256-258 

relieved  of  command  of  Western 
Department  of  Army,  262 
Friends 

letter  to   Mrs.  Gurney,  429 
Fugitive    slave  laws 

Congress'  power  in  relation  to,  182 

enforcement,   21 1 
Galena 

speech  in  reply  to  charge  of  "dis- 
unionists,"  122 
Galesburg 

debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln,   167 
Gallaher,   Austin,  2 
Galloway,   Samuel,   184 
Gamble,    Hamilton   R.    (Governor), 

335,  369 
General   Land   Office 
Butterfield  appointed,  88 
Butter  field's  appointment  opposed, 

86,  87 
office  sought  by  Lincoln,    82,  85,  88 
Georgia 
ports  blockaded,  242 
secession   of,   218 
slaves    freed  by  Hunter,  285 

act   repudiated   by   Lincoln,   286 
war  declared,  242 
German   newspaper 
purchased  by  Lincoln,  182 
sold  by  Lincoln,  209 
German   regiments 

formed  in  New  York,  247 
German  vote,   142,   180 
Gettysburg 
Battle  of,  365 

Lee     withdrew    but    unable    to 
cross  Potomac,  367 
Lincoln's  speech 
"Fourscore  and  seven  years  . . ." 
386 


490 


INDEX 


Gordon,  Nathaniel,  274-275 
Government 

importance  of  its  preservation,  120 
Governors 
additional  troops  arranged  for,  298 
message  to,  concerning  progress  of 
war,   297 
Grant,    Ulysses    S.    (General), 
acknowledment    of    service   in   vi- 
cinity of   Vicksburg,  367 
activities    along    Mississippi,   350, 

352 
as    Lieutenant-General    of    Army, 

402 
colored   troops   recommended,   373 
informed  of  conditions  in  vicinity 

of   Washington,  418 
Lincoln  visits  camp  of,  456 
Mobile       expedition       inadvisable, 

373 
Petersbug  victory,  457 
recommended    that     Sheriden,    as 
commander,    move    south    of 
enemy,  421 
tribute  of  Lincoln,  461 
victorious  campaign,  408 
Greeley,    Horace,  418 
answer   to   his    article,    Prayer   of 

Twenty  Millions,  309 
peace  negotiations  with  Confeder- 
ate agents  in  Canada,  420 
permission    to    publish    correspon- 
dence  with   Lincoln,  423,   425 
press   used   through,   264 
Stephens'  mission  to  Washington, 
423 
Green,  John  Bowling,  11 
Gurney,  Eliza  O.    (Mrs.)»  429 
Habeas  corpus  writ 

suspension,  376 
Hackett,   James   EL,  373,  386 
Hahn,   Michael    (Governor) 

Louisana    first    Free   State,  403 
Halleck,   Henry   W.    (General) 
attack  on  Lee  suggested  by  Lin- 
coln, 384-385 
criticized    for    opposing   Burnside, 

334 
disagreement   with   Hooker,   359 
General-in-Chief  of  Army,  301 

command  assumed,3io 
Meade's  campaign  discussed,  376 
suggestions  for  campaign  in  West, 
270 
Hanks,  family,  1 
Hanks,  John,   7 
Hardin  County,  Kentucky 
birthplace  of  Lincoln,  1 


Hardin,  J.  J.,  52 
Harney    (General),   247 
Harper's   Ferry,   193-194 

troops      from      Martinsburg     and 
Winchester,  358 
Harrisburg 

address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
227 
Harrison's  Landing 

Lincoln's   visit   to    McClellan,  300 
Helm,  Emily  T.   (Mrs.),  423 
Hernclon,   William   H.,  61,   75 

concerning   Lincoln's   reelection   to 
Congress,  66 

Mexican  War  controversy,  69 

partnership   with   Lincoln,   53 
hopes  for  continuance,  219 
Hogginsville 

birthplace  of  Lincoln,  1 
Llooker,    Joseph    (General) 

campaign  plans,   Richmond,   345 

commander,    Army    of     Potomac, 

339 
disagreement   with   Halleck,  359 
failure  to  obtain  results,  347 
Lincoln's   estimate  of,  339 
military   relation   to    Halleck,   359 
Rappahannock  campaign,  353,  354 
resignation    from    Army   of    Po- 
tomac, 361 

Hospitals 

chaplains   appointed,   261 

House  of   Representatives 
election  to,  60 
expiration  of  term,  83 
nomination   to,   57 
"Spot  Resolutions,"  63 

Hungarian  revolution 

resolutions   of   sympathy,  90 

Hunter,   David    (General) 
slaves    freed   by,    285,    286 
temporary  command,  Western  De- 
partment,  262 
use  of  colored  soldiers,  344 

Illinois 

Lincoln  family  moved  to,   7 

Illinois   Central   Railroad  Company 
bill   for  professional  services,   119 

Indian  War  in  Minnesota,  327 

Indiana 
Lincoln   family  moved  to,  3 
state  election 
soldiers  to  vote,  430 
Indianapolis 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
22c 
Inventions 
buoyant   chambers    for   vessel,  87 


INDEX 


491 


Jackson,  Thomas  J.    (General) 
return  from  Shenandoah  to  vicin- 
ity of   Richmond,  294 
"Valley   Campaign,"   287 
James   River 

McClellan's  army  in  camp,  300 
Jefferson,   Thomas 
principles  of,   179 
Johnson,   Andrew    (Governor),  400 
suggested     plans     for     Tennessee, 

376 
use  of  colored  soldiers,  343 
Johnston,  John    D.,   7,  91,   94"97 
Johnston,  Joseph   E.    (General) 

succeeded  by  Lee,   291 
Johnston,   Sally    (Mrs.) 

Thomas   Lincoln's   second  wife,  4 
Jones,   Thomas   D.,  452 
Jonesboro 
debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln, 159 
Journal  of  Commerce 

military    seizure    due    to    articles 
printed,  410 
Judd,    Norman   B., 

suggestion     regarding    fraudulent 
votes,    172 
Judiciary 

State,  reorganization,  33 
Kansas 
admission  controversy,  132 
as   free  state,   117,  218 
Governor   complains    of     military 

interference,    346 
Nebraska  territorial  bill  modified 

to  include,   104 
speech  concerning  situation  in,  120 
squatter   sovereignty 
as   party  "platform,"   184 
Kansas-Nebraska    Bill 
elections  influenced  by,   11 1 
introduction,  102 
Lincoln's  reply     to   Douglas,  103- 

108 
Missouri  Compromise  repealed  by, 

104 
slavery  issue  affected  by,  144 
Kentucky 
birthplace  of  Lincoln,  1 
military   force  in 

removal  request  denied,  255 
Key,  John  J.    (Major) 

dismissed    from    military    service, 
317 
King,  Turner  R.,  84,  85 
Kinney,   Captain,  405 
Knob   Creek,   Kentucky 

senior  Lincoln's  farm  at,  2,  3 


Knox,   Thomas   W., 

court-martial     sentence     revoked, 
342 
Koerner,  Gustave 

address  by  Hecker  desired,  142 

concerning    suffrage    of    natural- 
ized citizens,   180 

printing  of  Lincoln's  speeches,  149 
Labor 

see,  Capital  and  labor 
Land    Office,    Springfield 

recommendations  to   Secretary  of 
Interior,   84 
Land   Office,  Washington 

Lincoln   interested  in,  82,  85,  88 
La   Rue   County,  Kentucky 

birthplace  of  Lincoln,   1 
Law  practise 

Armstrong  case,   131,   134 

Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
bill  for  professional  services,  119 

license  obtained,  16 

partnership  with  Herndon,   53, 219 

partnership   with    Logan,   33 
dissolved,    53 

partnership    with    Stuart,    22 
dissolved,  33 

professional    development,    118 

resumed  upon  leaving  Congress,  84 

Rock  Island   Bridge   Co.   suit,   131 

views  of   profession  expressed   in 
lecture,  92 

work  "on  the  circuit,"  91 
Law  studies 

between  sessions  of  Legislature,  13 

Blackstone's,  Commentaries,  12 
Lawyers 

advice  to  beginners,    118 

method   of    study,    1*75 

views  of,  expressed  in  lecture,  94 
" Lecompton  Constitution,"   132 
Lee,    Robert    E., 

attack  on    McClellan  at   Mechan- 
icsville,  295 

retreat  into   Virginia,  320 

succeeds  Johnston,  291 

surrender,  460 
Lee,   S.   P.    (Admiral) 

concerning  Stephens  as  messenger 
of  Davis,  365 
Leesburg 

firing  in  vicinity,  360 
Legislation 

affecting  slave  property,   161 

fugitive    slave    laws,    relationship, 
182 

Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 
introduction,    102 

special  slave  laws,  171 


492 


INDEX 


Legislature 
Illinois 
candidate,  not  elected,  8,  n 
election,  13 
reelection,   16,  29,  31 
Lewis,  Alpheus,  397 
Lincoln,   Abraham 
abolition  in  District  of  Columbia, 

156 
addresses  on  trips  to  Washington 

for    inauguration,   220-228 
assassination,  468 

his  dream   concerning,  465 
plot  reported,  prior  to  his  inaug- 
uration, 225 
scoffed  by,  374 
birthplace,   1 
business  enterprises 

store  clerk  at  New   Salem,  8 
store  owner  at  New  Salem,  11 
Cabinet 

see,  Cabinet  of   Lincoln 
children  of,  61,  92,  203,  205,  220, 
383,  388 
death  of  son,  270 
entrance  of  son  into  army,  443 
Civil   War 
desire  to  have  no  bloodshed  as 

aftermath,  467 
issue  of,  256,  267 

emancipation,    303 
policy  outlined,  241 
proclamation,  242 
college  degree  conferred  upon,  442 
complete     self-assurance    attained, 

301 
Congress 

message   to,  248,   267,   322-327 
death  of   Ann   Rutledge,    13 
debate  with  Douglas 

a   plan   arranged,    146-148 
Alton,  168 
Charleston,  162-166 
Freeport,   154 
Galesburg,    167 
Jonesboro,  159 
Ottawa,  first  debate  at,  149 
Quincy,  168 
Douglas'    senatorial    election 

results   predicted,    175 
dreams    of    unusual    nature,    465, 

466 
Dred  Scott   Decision 

see,  Dred  Scott  Decision 
Emancipation 

see,   Emancipation 
forecast    of    the    Douglas    policy, 

148,    163 
Grant's  camp  visited,  456 


Lincoln,   Abraham,   con't. 

image    in    mirror   and    Mrs.    Lin- 
coln's  interpretation,   206 
invention  for  vessels,  87 
joined  Republican  Party,  121 
Kansas-Nebraska   Bill 

reply  to  Douglas,   103-108 
law  practise 

license  obtained,   16 
partnerships   with   Herndon,   53, 

219 
partnership  with  Logan,  33 

dissolved,   53 
partnership  with   Stuart,  22 
dissolved,  33 
law  studies,  12,   13 
letters   of    condolence,    247,    437 
marriage  to   Mary  Todd,   49 
Mary   Owens 
agreement   concerning,    16 
break  with,  26 
mother's    death,    4 
newspaper,  German 
purchased,   182 
sold,  209 
opinion  on  Fremont's  act  of  free- 
ing   slaves,   259 
parentage,    1 

personal   description,   188 
plans   for  future,  468 
poetry   written    by,    58 
political   career 

Flouse  of    Representatives 
election,    60 

expiration   of   term,   83 
nomination,    57 
Illinois   Legislature 

candidate,  not  elected,  8,  11 
election,   13 
reelection,    16,   29,   31 
Oregon  office  refused,  91 
presidency 
elected,  207 

elected  second  time,  434 
inaugural  address,  229 
nominated,  200 
proposed    for,    173,    181,    195, 

196,   197,  199,  200 
renomination,  411,  414 
second  inaugural  address,  450 
Senate 
candidacy,   108,   136 
condidacy  defeated,  112 
election  defeated,  173 
prayer  day   for  special  meditation 

assigned,  253,  368,  429 
printing  of   speeches,   149,    178 
religious  aspect,  317,  336,  429,  434 
view  of  joining  a  church,  442 


INDEX 


493 


Lincoln,   Abraham,   con't. 
reply   to    Douglas 

Chicago,  138 

Peoria,   103 

Springfield,   128 
reply  to  Greeley  on  policy  of  war, 

309 
river   transportation 

first  work  after  leaving  farm,  6 
schooling,  2,  4 
singing  ability  refuted,  91 
slavery 

see  also,  Slavery 

bill  for  abolition  in  District  of 

Columbia,   82 
Constitutional    amendments    rec- 
ommended, 322-327 
first  action  regarding,  21 
plan  for  abolishment,  276,  286 
speeches 

"Fourscore  and  seven  years  . . .," 

386 
last  public  address,  461 
New  York,  192-194,  198 
Springfield,  143 

printing    of,    149 
"With  malice  toward  none  . . .," 

452 
"You  can  fool  all  the  people  . . .," 
159 
temperance  championed  by,  40 
Lincoln,   Abraham    (Mrs.) 
see  also,  Todd,  Mary 
notes   from  her  husband,  74,  354. 
358,   360,    371,   377,   379,    388, 
407,  413,   430 
Tad's  goat,  372 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  senior,   1 
Lincoln    family 
see  also,  Johnson 
ancestry,   101 
Illinois   farm,   7 
Knob  Creek   farm,  2 
Spencer   County    farm,  3 
Lincoln,   Thomas 
birthplace,   1 

farm  at   Knob   Creek,   2,  3 
letter  to,  80  > 
second   marriage,  4 
"Lost   Speech,"   121 
Louisiana 
as   Free   State,  403 
effect  of   issue  in,  306,  310 
government,  371-372,   437.   462 
Hahn,  first  Free  State  Governor, 

403 
new  constitution,  424 
ports  blockaded,  242 


Louisiana,  con't. 

Rapids    Parish,    people    destitute, 

431 

secession  of,  218 

question  of   repeal,  386 

under    Federal    control,    319 

Congressional    election,    319,   321 

war  declared,  242 
"Loyal  Brigade  of  the  North,"  359 
Luckett,  Henry  F.,  394 
Maclean,  John    (Doctor) 

of   College  of    New  Jersey,  442 
Magoffin,    B.    (Governor) 

military    force   in   Kentucky 
removal   request  denied,  255 
Malvern    Hill,   Battle   of,    298 
Manassas,    Battle   of 

Federal   defeat,   311 
Manassas   Junction 

Potomac  Army  ordered  to  advance 
on,  274 
Mann,   Horace    (Mrs.),  406 
Martinsburg 

Confederate  victory,  357 

Tyler   surrounded,  357 
Maryland 

additional   troops  called   for,  358 
Massachusetts 

colored  migration,   399 

naturalized  citizen  provision,   181 
danger  as  "platform,"   184 
Matteson,   Joel   A.,   no 
McClellan,  George  B.   (General) 

attacked  by  Lee  at  Mechanicsville, 

295 
disagreement  with   President  over 

plans,  274,  277 
outside  of   Richmond,   291 
placed  in  command  of  Army,  263 
policy,   Lincoln  dubious,  283 
relieved    as   commanding    general, 

279 
relieved  from  command,  Army  of 

Potomac,  320 
replacing  of,  365 
resumed    command     in    place    of 

Pope,  311 
summoned   to   Washington,  251 
urged  to  go  into  action,  318,  320 
visit    of     Lincoln     at     Harrison's 
Landing    and     subsequent    re- 
moval as  commander-in-chief, 
300-301 
McCormick,    Cyrus   H.,    118 
McDowell,   Samuel  T.    (General) 
advance    on    Shenandoah    Valley, 

289 
movement  of   troops,  281,   286 
McPheeters,  Doctor,  334 


494 


INDEX 


Meade,    George   G.    (General) 
commander,    Army    of     Potomac, 

36i 
court   of    inquiry  refused,   404 
inaction  after  Gettysburg,  368-369 
ordered    to    suspend    execution   of 

soldier,  388 
suggestion   that   he    move    against 
Lee,  376 
Mechanicsville 

Lee  attacked  McClellan,  295 
Meigs    (Colonel) 

Lincoln's    estimate   of,    248 
Methodist    Delegation   to    Washing- 
ton, 409 
Mexican  War 
letter  to  Herndon  explaining  views, 

69 
Lincoln's  speech  before  House,  67 
outbreak  of,   60 
"Spot    Resolutions,"   62 
Milderborger,    John,   386 
Milroy,   R.   H.    (General) 

in  command  at  Winchester,  357 
Mississippi 
colored  troops  desirable,  369,  373 
ports  blockaded,  242 
secession  of,  216 
war  declared,  242 
Missouri 
emancipation,   policy  possible,  360 
factional   quarrel,  352 
governing  of,   335-336 
policy    in,     discussed    with    Scho- 

field,  380 
regiments  rushed  to,  254 
seizure    of    property    by    provost- 
marshals,   449 
Missouri   Compromise 
repeal,    102,   103,   144 
by  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  104 
or  restoration,  107 
Missouri,   Department  of 

Curtis  relieved  from  command,  352 
Schofield    in   command,   352 
Monocacy 

defeat,  418 
Montgomery,  Alabama 

Confederate     States    of    America 
formed,  219 
Morris,  Martin  M., 

letter    to,   51 
Morton,   Mary   E., 

property  seized,  397 
National   Union   League,  Delegation 

to    Washington,   412 
Nebraska 
territorial    government,    bill     for, 
104 


"Nebraska  Bill,"   102 

Lincoln's    reply   to    Douglas,    103- 
108 
Negroes 

see,  Colored  men ;   Slavery 
New   England 

speeches  of  Lincoln,  79 
New  Hampshire 
fugitive  slave  laws 
obedience,   punishable,    184 
New  Jersey 

quota  of  troops  lacking,  369 
New  Orleans 

flatboat  trip  to,  6,  7 
New  Salem,   Illinois 
postmaster  appointment,   12 
store 
Berry  and  Lincoln,  proprietors,  11 
Lincoln  as   clerk,  8 
New  York 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 

224 
Cooper    Institute 

Lincoln's  speech  at,  192-194 
draft 

suspension  refused,  372 

Newspapers 
help  asked  on  abolition  plan,  278 
New  York 
seizure   due  to   articles   printed, 
410 
power  of  press  recognized,  264 
Nezv  York  World 
military  seizure  due  to  nature  of 
articles,  410 
North  American  Review 

article,   "The   President's    Policy/' 
396 
Oath 

Lincoln's  dislike  of,   398 
of   amnesty,   389,  400 
Tennessee,  400 
Offutt,  Denton,  7 
Ohio 

additional   troops    called    for,   358 
fugitive   slave  laws 
repeal,    as   "platform,"    184 
Ohio  Delegation  at  Washington,  411 
"Old  Rough" 

name  applied  Zachary  Taylor,  72 
Ottawa 
debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln, 149 
Owens,   Mary,   16,  26 
Parentage  of   Lincoln,   I 
Peace 
conditions    for  basis  of,   444,  459 
Greeley's   negotiations,  420 


INDEX 


495 


Peace,  con't. 

idea    of    conference    with    Davis, 

abandoned,  427 
interview  at  Fortress  Monroe,  444, 

445 
Lincoln      willing      to       interview 

agents   of    South,  443 
proposal,   on  basis   of   bond   issue 
to  States,  447 
Pennsylvania 
additional   troops   called  for,  358 
troops  in,  312 
Pennsylvania   Delegation 

reply  to,  232 
Pensacola 

Porter  sent  to  guard  Fort   Pick- 
ens, 237 
Peoria 

speeches  of  Douglas  and  Lincoln, 
103 
Petersburg 

Grant   victorious,  457 
Philadelphia 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
227 
Philips,  John,  438 
Phillips,   Wendell,   422 
Piatt,  John  J.,  452 
Pittsburgh 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 

225  < 
Brooks   in   command,  359 
Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn 

Lincoln  invited  to  speak,  192 
Poetry 

on   childhood   home,   58 
Political  career 
House  of  Representatives 
election  to,  60 
nomination,  57 
Illinois   Legislature 

candidate,   not  elected,  8,    II 
election,    13 
reelection,    16,    29,    31 
Oregon  office  refused,  91 
presidency 
elected,  206 

elected  second  time,  434 
inaugural  address,  229 
nominated,  200 

proposed  for,  195,  196,  197,  199, 
200 
by  L.  J.  Pickett,  181 
Mansfield,  Ohio,   173 
second  inaugural  address,  450 
Senate 
candidacy  defeated,  112 
candidate  for,  108 
election  defeated,  173 


Political    opinions 
Buchanan's  campaign,  issue  of,  124 
constitutionality    of    slave   holding 

and   slave  returning,    172 
early  views,  8,   14 
election   of    Douglas    not    an    end 

to    controversy,    174 
fugitive  slave  laws 

Congress'  power  in  relation  to, 
182,   211 
"house  divided  against  itself,"  136 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 

reply  to  Douglas,   103-108 
Mexican  War  controversy,  67 
naturalized   citizen    provision,    181 
obligation   to    Supreme   Court  de- 
cision,   167 
racial   equality,   162 
slave   legislation  as   affecting  the 

Constitution,    170 
slavery,    attitude    toward,    formu- 
lated,  97 
"Spot    Resolutions,"    62 
Taylor 

method  of  appointment,  89 
nomination,  72,  73 
Political   speeches,    19 
see  also,  Speeches 
Cincinnati,    185 

Cooper    Union,    New   York,    193 
debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln 
a   plan   arranged,    146-148 
Alton,   168 
Charleston,  162-166 
Freeport,  154 
Galesburg,    167 
Jonesboro,  159 
Ottawa,  149 
Quincy,    168 
Democratic  Party  referred  to,  76 
Douglas  and  Lincoln 
Chicago,  138 
Peoria,   103 
Springfield,  128 
Galena 

reply    to    charge    of    "disunion- 
ists,"  122 
invitations,  185 
made  in  New  England,  79 
parties  compared  on  slavery  ques- 
tion, 130 
printing  of,  149,  178 
Springfield,  143 

printing  of,   149 
time  devoted  to,    131 
Politics 
see  also,  Conventions,  political 


496 


INDEX 


Politics,  con't. 

Chase's  attempt  to   supplant  Lin- 
coln, 384,  400 
Douglas    policy    forecast   by   Lin- 
coln, 148,  163 
Douglas'    senatorial    election 

results  predicted  by  Lincoln,  175 
Dred     Scott     decision     intensified 
senatorial    issue    at    Chicago, 
138 
elections  of  1863,  388 
Electoral  Count 

Lincoln's  reelection,  448 
German  vote,  142,  180 
Kansas  admission  controversy,  132 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 

elections  influenced  by,   in 
local  "platforms"  dangerous,  183- 

184 
office  seeking 

General  Land  Office,  82,  88 
Post-office  sought  by  Davis,  87 
presidential  campaign  of  1865,  433 
contest   between  union  and  dis- 
union, 421 
senatorial  vacancy  in  1859 
Lincoln  and  Douglas  candidates, 

134 
slavery 

issue  more  apparent,  114 
issue    of    Buchanan's    campaign, 
124 
"Union,  Constitution  and  Enforce- 
ment    of      Laws,"     platform 
wanted,    190 
Pomeroy   Circular,  400,  402 
Pomeroy,   S.   C, 
concerning  government  in  Kansas, 
409 
Pope   (General) 

command  given  to  McClellan,  311 
commander,     Army    of     Virginia, 
294 
Porter,  D.  D.   (Lieutenant) 

sent  to  Pensacola,  237 
Porter,   Fitz-John    (Major-General) 
dismissed    from    military    service, 

339 
Postmaster  at  New  Salem,   12 
Postmaster-General 

Blair's  resignation,  432 
Denni son's   appointment,  433 
Potomac,  Army  of 
attack  on  Lee  suggested  by  Lin- 
coln, 384-385 
Burnside  in  command,  320 
Burnside  relieved  from  command, 

339 
Fredericksburg,  Battle  of,  330 
Gettysburg,  Battle  of,  365 


Potomac,   Army  of,   con't. 
Hooker  in  command,  339 
Hooker's  resignation,  361 
Lee's  army  as  suggested  objective, 

377 
McClellan     relieved     from     com- 
mand, 320 
Meade  in  command,  361 
plans,  266,  278,  331 
President's     Special    War    Order 
No.   1 
move  on  Manassas  Junction,  274 
Powhatan 

Foote  in  command,  237 
Prayer,  343 

special    day    for,     observed,    253, 
368,  429 
Presidents 
Buchanan 

slavery  issue,  124 
campaign  of   1865 

contest  between  union  and  dis- 
union, 421 
Lincoln 
elected,  206 

elected  second  time,  434 
inaugural  address,  239 
nominated,  200 

proposed,  195,  196,  197,  199,  200 
by  T.  J.  Pickett,  181 
Mansfield,  Ohio,   173 
Republican    State   Convention, 
200 
renomination,  411,  414 
second  inaugural  address,  450 
Taylor 

nomination,  72 
Products   of    States   in   insurrection, 

432 
Property 

destruction  of,  by  armies,  424 
Publicity 

Lincoln's     speeches     printed,     149, 

^8 
Quincy 

debate  between  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln,  167 
Rappahannock 

Hooker's  forces  against  Lee,  353, 

354 
Raymond,  Henry  J.,  425 

letter    to,    concerning    peace    con- 
ference, not  used,  427 
Reading  of  Lincoln 

Blackstone's,  Commentaries,  12 
Weems'  Life  of  Washington,  5 
Rebel  prisoners  freed,  453 
Reed,  Alexander  (Reverend) 
United   States   Christian   Commis- 
sion, 341 


INDEX 


497 


Regiments 
colored,  343,  344,  406 

possible  use  at  Fortress  Monroe 
and  Yorktown,  337 
Ohio,  Lincoln's  address  to,  426 
Potomac  Division 

plans   for,  266 
regulations     concerning     deserted 

soldiers,  341 
troops  of  McDowell,  281,  285 
Republican      National      Convention, 
Philadelphia 
Lincoln  voted  for,  121 
Republican  Party- 
Chicago  Convention 

nomination  of  Lincoln,  200 
Lincoln  became  member,   121 
need  of   uniformity,   183 
organized,  108 
Republican  State  Convention 

Lincoln    proposed     for    president, 
200 
Reynolds,  J.  J.   (General) 

questioned    concerning    seizure    of 
property,  396 
Richard,   Sarah,  33 
Richmond 

Burnside  directed  to  send  troops, 

296 
campaign  for  capture,  294-295 
capture  of,  458 
Halleck    directed    to    send    troops, 

295 
McClellan  in  vicinity,  291 
plan  for  attack  under  Hooker,  345 
Seven  Days  Battle 

Malvern  Hill,  298 
Seven  Days  Battle 
Mechanicsville,   295 
River  transportation 

carried  on  by  Lincoln,  6 
Rock  Island  Bridge   Co.   suit,   131 
Rosecrans,  W.   S.   (General) 

asked  for  news  from  Mississippi, 

350 
Burnside  to  join,  at  Chattanooga, 

378 
cited  for  advancement,  395 
positions     of     troops     and     Lee's 

probable  move,  383 
vicinity  of   Chattanooga,  377 
Rutledge,  Ann,  13 
Sabbath 

observance  of,  320 
St.  Louis 

Fremont  in  command,  254 
slaves   freed  by   Fremont 
order  modified  by  Lincoln,  256, 
257,  258 


St.  Louis,  con't. 

trip  to,  with  Joshua  Speed,  34 
Savannah 

Sherman  victorious,  441 
Schenck,  R.  C.   (General),  369 
Scho field,  John  M.    (General) 
Department  of  Missouri 
in  command,  352 
question  of  removal,  394 
policy  in  Missouri,  380 
query  concerning  emancipation  in 
Missouri,  360 
Schurz,    Carl     (General),    321,    403, 

404 
Scott,  Winfield  (General),  216 
daily  reports  required,  237 
opinion    on    military    strength    at 

Lincoln's  inauguration,  232 
retired  upon  request,  263 
suggested  policy   for,  244-245 
Secession 
Alabama,  217 
first  rumors 
after  Lincoln's   nomination,  204 
Lincoln's  reply,  190 
Florida,  216 

fostered     during     latter     part     of 
Buchanan's  administration,  214 
Georgia,  218 
legality  of,  386 
Louisiana,  218 
Mississippi,   216 
South  Carolina,  211 
Texas,  228 
United    States  mail  withdrawn  as 

result  of,  241 
Virginia,  242 
Secretary  of  State 
Seward,  William  H., 
appointment,  232 
office  offered  to,  209 
resignation  tendered,  330 
Secretary  of  Treasury 
Chase,  Salmon  P., 
resignation  accepted,  415 
resignation  tendered,  330 
Senate 
attack  on  President's  policy,  422 
Committee  of  Thirteen  appointed, 

210 
election  of  Douglas,  173 
Lincoln 

candidacy,  108,  136 

defeated,  112 
election,  defeated,   173 
Republicans    want    new     Cabinet, 

272 
request     dismissal     of     Lincoln's 
Cabinet,  329 


498 


INDEX 


Senate,  con't. 
vacancy  in  1859 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  candidates, 
134 
withdrawal  of   southern  members, 
218 
Seven  Oaks,  Battle  of,  291 
Seventh  Regiment 

arrival  at  Washington,  244 
Seward,  William  H., 
Secretary  of  State 
appointment,  232 
office  offered  to,  209 
resignation  tendered,  330 
suggestions  of  policy  to  President 
first  month's  administration,  235 
Seymour,  Horatio    (Governor),  342, 

Shakespeare's  works 

Lincoln's  appreciation  of,  373 
Sheledy,  G.  B.,  40 
Shenandoah  Valley 

Banks  ordered  to  advance,  292 
McDowell  ordered  to  advance,  289 
Sheridan,  Philip  H.   (General) 
campaign  against  Early,  430,  431 
Grant's  recommendations  for  cam- 
paign, 421 
Sherman,  William  T.  (General) 
citizens  of  Chattanooga  forced  to 

move,  408 
Indiana  election,  430 
Savannah  captured  by,  441 
Shields,  James,  46 
Slavery 
see  also,  Emancipation 
abolition  in  District  of  Columbia, 
282 
bill  in  House,  82 
abolition,  Lincoln's  plan,  276,  286 
African    slave    trade    suppression, 

292 
Buchanan's    campaign,    importance 

of  issue,  124 
Congress 

jurisdiction     over     States     and 

Territories,  138,  161 
lack     of     constitutional     power 
over,  416 
Constitutional  amendments  recom- 
mended, 322-327 
Constitutionality  of   slave  holding 

and  slave  returning,  172 
Dred  Scott  Decision,  128,  144 
slave  holding  affected  by,   170, 
172 
extension 

danger  of  compromise,  210 
foreign  slave-trade  question,   136 


Slavery,    con't. 

Fugitive  Slave  laws,    155 
Congress'  power,   171,   182 
enforcement,  21  r 
issue  of  war,  381 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  102 
issue  affected  by,  144 
Lincoln's  reply  to  Douglas,  103- 
108 
Lincoln's  attitude,  97,  405 
Lincoln's   first  action,  21 
mentioned  in  New  England  speech, 

79 
opposed  by  Henry  Clay,  98 
perpetuation      not      intended      by 
founders  of  our  Government, 

political  issue  growing,  114 
racial  equality  not  alternative,  163 
slave-trade  between  states,   157 
Territories 

Congressional   power,    138 
question  of  permitting,   106 
Dred   Scott  decision  denies   ex- 
clusion, 152 
Texas,  effect  of  annexation  upon, 

54 
view  of  Henry  Clay,  153 
Slaves 

fugitive,  temporary  provision  for, 

by  army,  300 
paid  service  in  Union  army,  306 
petition    to     free,    sent    by    Mrs. 
Horace  Mann,  406 
Smith,   W.  F.    (General) 

plan  for  Army  of  Potomac,  331 
Society 

problems  of,  102 
Society  of  Friends 
acknowledgment    of    letter    from, 
280 
Soldiers 
deserters,    regulations    concerning, 

341 
expiration  of  term  of  service,  383 
mistreatment,  arbitrary  retaliation 

in  kind  for,  371 
negroes,  391,  392 
prisoners  of  war 
enlistment  in  Union  Army,  428, 

431 
exchange,  449 
freed,  453 
sentenced  to  die,  Lincoln  asks  full 
information  of,  385,  386,  388, 
396 
withholding  of  pay,  401 


INDEX 


499 


South 
see    also,    Confederate    States   of 

America 
Confederate     States    of    America 

formed,  219 
cotton,  effect  on  situation,  440 
Fort  Kearney  officers 
threat    to    resist   government    if 
Republicans  win  election,  206 
rumored   report  of   willingness  to 
send  men  to  Congress,  1862,  328 
secession 

first     rumors,     after     Lincoln's 
nomination,  204 
South    Carolina 
ports  blockaded,  242 
secession,  211 
slaves  freed  by  Hunter,  285 

act  repudiated  by  Lincoln,  286 
war  declared,  242 
withdrawal    of    Federal    garrisons 
demanded,  213 
Speeches 
see      also,      Lincoln,       Abraham, 

speeches*   Political  speeches 
en  route  to   Washington,  220-228 
inaugural  addresses,  239,  450 
last  public  address,  461 
printing  of,   149,   178 
Speed,  Joshua  F.,  22 
concerning  marriage,  36-40,  42-45 
slavery  controversy,   116 
trip  to  St.  Louis,  34 
Speed,  Mary   (Miss) 

letter  to,  34 
Spencer   County,  Indiana 

Lincoln  family  moved  to,  3 
"Spot   Resolutions,"  62 
Springfield,  Illinois 

farewell     address     prior     to     in- 
auguration, 220 
Lincoln's   law  practise  at,   22 
speeches  of  Douglas,  Lincoln,  128 
Staats  Anzeiger 

purchased  by  Lincoln,  182 
sold  by  Lincoln,  209 
Stager,  Anson 

report  on  Vicksburg,  351 
Stanford,  J.  R.,  100 
Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  118 

suspension,  Chicago   Times,  353 
States 
additional  troops  needed,  383 
Border 
conference       on       emancipation 

policy,  279,  301 
compensated     emancipation     re- 
fused, 303 


States,  con't. 
Free 

Kansas,  117,  218 
Louisiana,  403 
laws    conflicting    with    those    of 

Congress,  211 
message  to   governors   concerning 

progress  of  the  war,  297 
primary  meaning  of  term,  221 
proclamation   concerning   the   res- 
toration, 417 
provisions  concerning  negroes,  391, 

393 
purchase  of  products,  432 
seceded,        government        reestab- 
lished, 390 
slavery,  Lincoln's  plan  for  abolish- 
ment, 276 
Steele,  F.   (General) 

plans  for  Arkansas,  400 
Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  190,  423 
Stephens,     John     A.      (Lieutenant), 

447,  449 
Steubenville 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
223 
Stone,  General,  283 
Stuart,  John  T.    (Major) 
Lincoln  encouraged  to  study  law 
by,  13 
Sullivan,    Daniel 

execution  suspended,  379 
Sumner,  Charles,  452 
Supreme  Court 
decisions,  reversing  of,   168 
political  obligation  to  decision  of, 
167 
Surveying 

work  at  Sangamon,  13 
Syracuse 
address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
224 
Tariff 

Lincoln's  view  of,  187 
Taylor,   Bayard,  395 
Taylor,  Zachary 

presidential  nomination,  72 
Temperance 

cause  championed  by  Lincoln,  40 
Tennessee 

oath  of  amnesty,  400 
plans  of   reinauguration,  376 
Union  troops  needed  in,  269,  270 
Territories 
division  between  North  and  South, 

question   agitated,   210 
"Freeport   Doctrine"  of    Douglas, 
158 


5oo 


INDEX 


Territories,    con't. 

Fugitive-Slave   law,    171 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 

effect  on,  138 
slavery 

agitation  regarding   "slave"  and 

"free"  divisions,  213 
Dred   Scott   Decision,   152,    170, 

question  of  permitting,   106 
Territorial  Legislature 

Constitution,  relationship,  170 
Texas 
annexation  controversy,  53 
ports  blockaded,  242 
secession  of,  228 
Thanksgiving   Proclamation,  380 
Thomas,  Lorenzo   (General),  366 

seizure  of  negroes,  412 
Thompson,  William 

deserter,  374 
Tobey,  Samuel  Bo}'d  (Doctor) 
letter  acknowledged  from  Society 
of  Friends,  280 
Todd,  Mary 
see  also,  Lincoln,  Abraham  (Mrs.) 
engagement,  30 
broken,  31 
renewed,  46 
marriage,  49 
Trumbull,  Lyman 
letter  to,  199 

Lincoln  not  a  rival,   177,  187 
senatorial  candidate,  108 
Tyler   (General) 

in  command  at  Martinsburg,  357 
Union 

articles    of    Confederation,     1778, 

191 
issue    of    controversy   outlined   by 

Lincoln,  248 
preservation,    188,  211 

effect    of    Democratic    election, 

427 
issue  of  1865  presidential  cam- 
paign, 421 
issue  of  war,  381 
possible   use   of   military    force, 
218 
restoration   of,    purpose   of    Civil 

War,  256 
unanimous   vote  of   states  to  dis- 
solve, 190 
Union  League  of  Philadelphia 

Lincoln,  honorary  member,  385 
United   States  Army 
activities  outlined,  251 
arms   supply  inadequate,  260 
council    of    division    commanders, 
277 


United    States    Army,    con't. 
daily  reports 
Hamlin,  246 
Scott,  237 
draft  ordered,  398 
enlistment    of    rebel    prisoners    of 

war,  428,  431 
expedition  ordered  to  move  by  sea, 

April,   1862,   237 
Grant,  U.   S.,  Lieutenant-General, 

402 
officers'  threat  to  resist   Govern- 
ment if  Republicans  win  elec- 
tion, 207  _ 
Potomac  Division 

Burnside  in  command,  320 
McClellan    relieved    from    com- 
mand, 320 
plans  for,  266 
President's   General    War   Orders, 

273,  277,  278 
President's  Special  War  Order 

No.  3,  279 
Scott  replaced  by  McClellan,  263 
States   called  upon    for  additional 

troops,  358 
Virginia  Division,  294 
volunteers'  term  of  service  to  ex- 
pire 
States  asked  to  raise  quota,  383 
Western  Department 
Fremont    replaced    by    Hunter, 
262 
United  States  Christian  Commission, 

341 
United  States  Government 
articles    of     Confederation,     1778, 

191 
mails     withdrawn     from     seceded 

States,  241 
oath  of  amnesty,  389,  400 
offices 

(see  also,  Cabinet  of  Lincoln) 
appointments  of  Lincoln,  234 
plans   to   cope   with  resistance   of 
army  officers  after  Lincoln's 
election,  212,  213 
policy      toward      states      claiming 

secession,  241 
state  laws   in  opposition  to,  211 
states  in  rebellion 

bond  issue  proposed,  447 
conditions  for  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities, 444,  459 
issue  inflexible,  439 
negotiations  with  agents  of,  420, 

444,  445 
restoration  plans,  417 


INDEX 


Soi 


United    States    Government,    corit. 
Union,  preservation  of,  188 
possibility     of     using     military 
force,  218 
United  States,  military  forces 

strength  of,  at  time  of   Lincoln's 
inauguration,  233,  238 
United  States  Navy 
instructions,  370 

Porter  ordered  to  Pensacola,  237 
President's    General    War    Order 
No.  1 
general  movement  of  troops,  273 
Utica 

address,  en  route  to  Washington, 
224 
Vache  Island 

colored  colony  at,  398 
Vallandigham,  C.  L., 
arrest  of,  350 

explanation  to  Erastus  Corning, 

355 

nominated  for  governor,  362 
"Valley   Campaign" 

Jackson's,  287 
Vandalia 

State  Legislature  convened  at.  17 
Vessels 

see,  Boats 
Veterans  and  families 

responsibility  toward,  370 
Vicksburg,  Battle  of 

surrender  to  Grant,  366 
Virginia 

Legislature   during   rebellion 
no  official  recognition,  460,  465 

secession,  242 
Virginia,  Army  of 

formation,  with   General    Pope  in 
command,  294 
Virginia  Convention  Committee 

Lincoln's  policy  outlined  to,  241 
Wade-Davis   Manifesto,  422 
Wade    (Senator) 

published  attack  on  President,  422 
Walker,  Governor 

letter  to 

Horace  Greeley  and  the  press, 
264 
War 

Black  Hawk 
Lincoln  a  captain  in,  9 


War,  con't. 

Civil 
see,  Civil  War 

Indian,  in  Minnesota,  327 

Mexican,  67,  69 
outbreak  of,  60 
"Spot  Resolutions,"  62 
Washington 

address  at,  in  reply  to  Mayor,  228 

condition  of  troops  in  vicinity,  418 

communication    with    North    des- 
troyed, later  resumed,  244 

Seventh   Regiment  at,  244 
Watkins,   N.  W.,  329 
Weed,  Thurlow,  383 
Weitzel,  G.   (General),  460,  465 
Welch,  John  A.,  388 
Wellers,   Samuel,  386 
Welles,  C.  R., 

letter  to,  83 
West  Virginia 

additional  troops  called  for,  358 
Whig  State  Convention,  36 
White,  Hugh  L.,  14 
Wilmot  proviso,  117 
Wilson,  James  Grant 

book  of  poems  acknowledged,  199 
Winchester 

Confederate  victory,  358 

Milroy  surrounded,  357 
Wisconsin   State  Agricultural   Soci- 
ety 

address  by  Lincoln,  186 
Wood,  Fernando 

letter  to,  328 
Wool,  John  E.  (General) 

letter  to 

possibility     of     military      force 
used  to  preserve  Union,  218 
Women  of  America 

Lincoln's  tribute,  403 
Working  Men's  Association  of  New 

York,  404 
Workingmen  of   Manchester 

resolutions    sent    and    reply,    337, 
340 
Wright,  H.  G.   (General) 

asked    to    move    to     Cumberland 

<*ap,  313 

Young-Indian  Club,  190 

Young    Men's    Lyceum   of    Spring- 
field, 28 


